This image was lost some time after publication.

While last year's Newsweek Oscar director roundtable featured George Clooney's shocking reminder about the heavy-handed skeleton lurking in his sitcom-acting closet, this year's thespian-centric discussion contains the equally surprising admission that fans of Babel's Brad Pitt have the exotic dancing profession to thank (or to blame) for his career:

PITT:... Yeah, my job was to drive [strippers] to bachelor parties and things. I'd pick them up, and at the gig I'd collect the money, play the bad Prince tapes and catch the girls' clothes. It was not a wholesome atmosphere, and it got very depressing. After two months I went in to quit, and the guy said, "Listen, I've got this one last gig tonight." So I did it, and this girl—I'd never met her before—was in an acting class taught by a man named Roy London [a famous acting coach]. I went and checked it out, and it really set me on the path to where I am now.

A stripper changed the course of your career.
 PITT: [Nods] Strippers changed my life.

We'll see that in the National Enquirer next week.
 PITT: [Looks toward the ceiling] I just want one week off. Just one.

Those not inclined to find the recounting of Pitt's humble, up-from-stripper-valet beginnings sufficiently uplifting might derive inspiration from the story of how roundtable colleague Leonardo DiCaprio waged a valiant battle against his post-Titanic pretty-boy objectification by seeking out a creatively nurturing relationship with Martin Scorsese, who allowed the raw, young actor to pee in as many milk bottles as it took to shake an unfair pigeonholing as just "another piece of cute meat."