Damon's tax-cutting remarks; Bradlee won't out source

BANKING ON KERRY Actor Matt Damon tells Diane Sawyer tonight that supporting John Kerry was, "financially, the stupidest thing that [he] could do," but the election was about more than money. Interviewed with his "Ocean's Twelve" costars on "Primetime Live," Damon says he doesn't need or want the fat tax break he's getting from the Bush administration. "I personally would like to give millions of dollars back," he says. "This guy -- this president -- is giving me millions of dollars. Do you think I need that?" (No, as a matter of fact, we don't.) Damon also credits his parents for instilling a strong work ethic in their kids: "My mother, because she was a professor . . . never made as much money as she deserved to make, but she loved what she did. And my father, who went and took a job to make enough money to provide for us, but never loved his job," he said. "So both of them said, 'Boys, whatever you do, make sure that you love to do it. Unless you have children to provide for, in which case you have to suck it up and . . . do whatever you need to do.' "

MUMS THE WORD No, former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee (below) didn't ID "Deep Throat" yesterday during his talk at Brandeis's new Institute for Investigative Journalism. For now, he said, the name of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's shadowy Watergate source shall remain a secret. "I knew where he worked, I knew he was a he, I roughly knew how old he was, and I knew he was right every time," Bradlee said. "But I didn't know who it was until after Watergate was over when Woodward told me. . . . I won't tell you if I was surprised or not."

ALL KISS-ES Word is that Tyler Hilton, one of the hotties on the WB's "One Tree Hill," will be a surprise (oops) guest at radio station Kiss 108's winter blowout, the Jingle Ball, at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell next week. . . . Also, it appears that for Matt Siegel's "Merry Matty" annual holiday show Dec. 19 at the World Trade Center, the WB's "Summerland" star Jesse McCartney, formerly of Dream Street, will be joined by "Cheaper by the Dozen" star Alyson Stoner, Red Sox pitcher and musician Bronson Arroyo, and, of course, the World Series trophy. . . . Speaking of which, at a lunch with newspaper publishers yesterday in Bedford, Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino said the Sox would take the trophy to every city and town in the state that makes a request; that could be 351 community trips.

ITALIAN STYLE ArclineaBoston president Philip Guarino opened his Italian custom-designed kitchen showroom at10 St. James nearly three years ago and spent the last year and a half trying to arrange a US visit by architect Antonio Citterio. So it was with some excitement that nearly 200 people flocked to the Arclinea space and neighboring furniture showroom Montage Tuesday night to hear Citterio speak. (The famed Italian architect, winner of the Compasso d'Oro, also spoke at Harvard yesterday.) St. James Street may not be Via Veneto, but for a night it took on quite an Italian ambiente. Among the cognoscenti Italiani spied were Italian Consul General Pierluigi Squillante, architect Magda Brosio, the Rialto Group's Michela Larson and Gary Sullivan, Via Matta's Christopher Myers, DeLucca's Virgil Aiello, flack Jan Saragoni, Newbury Street plastic surgeon Daniel Del Vecchio, and Louis Boston's Debi Greenberg. Also present were Elizabeth Lowrey, a principal at Elkus Manfredi, which designed the Montage space, and Millennium Partners principal Anthony Pangaro, whose company built the10 St. James building.

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