I caught Sean Penn on The Late Show last night, decked out like the extra Reservoir Dog in a white shirt, black suit jacket and tie. He was low key and at his most gloriously disheveled; I swear, looking at this guy makes me immediately want to destroy every comb, brush and mirror in sight. It’s a look that somehow really works for him.

Penn talked in erudite fashion about Into the Wild, and the real-life Chris McCandless’ trip-the-soul-fantastic journey, saying that we live in “a comfort-addicted society,” which is an interesting turn of phrase that I don’t believe I’d heard before. David Letterman tried to make Oscar small talk, looking back on Penn’s Mystic River victory, but Penn kept his reminiscences brief, noting that “any social gathering of more than five people, without alcohol” makes him uneasy.

Interestingly, the typically politically-averse Letterman then segued into Penn’s recent trip to Venezuela, asking why he went there. Penn’s classic response: “I felt almost invited to go by Pat Robertson when he encouraged the assassination of Hugo Chavez, because I always can assume that whatever he says, it ought to be the opposite.” When Letterman went on to say that he’d heard Chavez was “wacky,” Penn paused and offered forth a perfectly hollow smile before replying, “If people have oil under their ground, they’re called wacky.”