Jack Nicholson stars in Columbia Pictures' "How Do You Know," also starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson.

NEW YORK -- He never sent out a press release announcing it, but Jack Nicholson admits he's been happily sort-of retired in the three years since his last movie, The Bucket List.

"Everybody's always saying, 'Oh God, man, you couldn't not work.' Well, I'm kind of proving them wrong," Nicholson says, sharing a press conference table with fellow cast-members of the James Brooks romantic comedy How Do You Know (in theatres Friday).

"I read a lot of scripts, but they're all the same. I like not working. I know that's hideous blasphemous, but I really do." He says his non-work ethic is "starting to infect others, young guys. I had a conversation with Leo (DiCaprio, his erstwhile co-star in Scorsese's The Departed), and he said, 'I love not working!'

"I said, 'See what I mean?' "

If it seems ironic to talk about not working at the launch of his new film, it does underscore that Brooks is probably the only man who could have dragged Nicholson away from his centre court seat at the Lakers games.

They've done three movies together -- Terms Of Endearment, As Good As It Gets and Broadcast News. The first two won Nicholson Oscars, best supporting actor and actor respectively.

"He's probably one of the best screenwriters in the world. That, plus you rarely get to work with -- accent the adjective -- a dear friend," he says, pausing to add, "and a couple of Oscars didn't hurt in cementing the relationship."

The role that lured him back in play was, remarkably, a first in a 55-year career. Nicholson never played a dad before, even a venal SOB of the sort he plays here. In How Do You Know, he's Charles Madison, an ethically challenged CEO apparently willing to let his naïve son George (Paul Rudd) take the fall and go to jail for corporate malfeasance.

Thus troubled and preoccupied, George shows up for a blind date with the equally troubled Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), an Olympic softball star who's just been released by the U.S. National Team. She accepts the date even though she's already in an unsteady relationship with Matty (Owen Wilson), a pitcher for the Washington Nationals.

The rest? Well, as they say, hilarity ensues.

So what about these kids today? "I mean, these are three of the most talented comic talents in the country. That's not small. So I'm always learning when it's comedy and I learned plenty from these guys," Nicholson says of the actors who play out the ménage a trois in How Do You Know.

Turned out Nicholson's hellraising legend preceded him.

"I didn't get to work with Owen, who kills me anyway. The only contact I had with him was that he called me up when I first got there and he said, 'Hey, do you want to go out and shoot machine guns?' I thought, 'Oh, my God, all these guys think I'm that adventurous.' " (Wilson says that during the Washington shoot, "a friend knew somebody at one of the embassies and they had a machine gun range underneath that they took us to shoot on.") "With Jim you have to remember that he writes comedies like nobody else. I mean, (in this movie) you're dealing with life, death, business crime, fatherhood, motherhood, all these very serious topics, and everything is funny at the same time."

The trick was to turn a father who could kiss his son and railroad him at the same time into a sympathetic figure. "I've played a lot of bad or semi-bad or whatever people and (as an actor) you always have to be on the character's side. I liked playing the father even though he's kind of not a great father. But I think you can see that he really does care, even though he chooses business over his son. Those are the kinds of things you have to finesse."

Despite his reluctance to accept a role, he does say the upside of filming remains. "Travel. Beautiful women. Excellent compatriots. Drinking pals. It's very exciting. It's just an exciting business."

His work over, but for a few promotional appearances, Nicholson can go back to the life of a rogue in retirement. "I just like getting up between 11 (a.m.) and 1 (p.m.)," he says of a typical day of leisure. "Play golf. I have a couple of kids in college, so I'm on the phone a lot. I see my pals, chase various women around. Talk to my congressman. Go to funerals."

And what about those Lakers?

"That's more of a job," he says. "I have to be there."

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