Rinko Kikuchi may travel with an interpreter, but her English is Baccarat-clear when she’s thirsty. “I need Champagne, please!” she trilled on a recent night as she swept into the lobby of Le Montrose Suite Hotel to meet some friends.

But don’t get the wrong idea about this long-legged, blond Japanese actress. Kikuchi, doleful and wary, is more Patti Smith than Paris Hilton. She loves punk music, painting moody pictures and writing angry songs. Her interpreter, Tamaka Takefushi, says of her: “She is too honest and can’t hide her emotions with the press.”

Kikuchi, 26, has done plenty of interviews as a result of her breakthrough performance as a troubled deaf teen in the film Babel. In one scene, she exposes herself agrave; la Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct to some boys in a Tokyo restaurant. She also racked up a Gotham Award an East Coast version of the Spirit Awards and a Golden Globe nomination. She’s also received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

“I want to get a New York accent,” said Kikuchi, who prefers the East Coast to the West. Before dashing off in a black SUV, she recalled one zippy phrase she had learned in Manhattan: “Fabulous!”

Next stop was a dinner party for Chanel’s new perfume line, Les Exclusifs, at the Chateau Marmont. The lobby was teeming with celebrities, socialites and producers. Kate Bosworth chatted with Cameron Diaz, while the dinner’s hostess, Sienna Miller, flitted like a pollinating honeybee among guests. It felt like a high school cafeteria, and clearly, Kikuchi was the new girl.

When someone offered to introduce Kikuchi to Miller, she politely demurred. “I have met her three times,” said Kikuchi, holding up three fingers. Her frank response was met with confusion. Kikuchi shrugged and did what any cool new girl would do: she headed outside for a Marlboro.

“I don’t like the red carpet,” she said, blowing smoke over her shoulder. “Too much pressure.” Kikuchi noted that most reporters ask about Brad Pitt, her Babel co-star, who has escorted her down the press line for premieres. “He pushes me along and makes me laugh because I get nervous,” she added.

When it was time for dinner, Kikuchi had only 15 minutes to spare. She was due to join a panel for Babel at a nearby theatre. Talk again turned to older men. Musically, she said, she adored Lou Reed, whom she met and described with a wicked smile as “grumpy, “ and Tom Waits.

Time to go. Kikuchi scanned the room and whispered to Takefushi. She wanted to meet Dustin Hoffman. The two approached the actor, shook hands and made for the exit. So? “He was short,” she said, with a giggle. “When I met Sean Penn, that was fabulous.”

MONICA CORCORAN