Permission granted.

Then he turns to his handler, smiles, stands up halfway and says with a wicked smile, "Hey, I just stole this man's apple juice."

When no one pays attention to his declaration, he smiles and repeats the statement louder. Still no reaction comes.

So he shrugs his shoulders and takes his seat again.

As a teenage Lex Luthor, Rosenbaum is a guy who has done far worse than swipe a bottle of juice. Someday, he'll be Superman's greatest foe. For now, he's just one messed-up boy genius.

Rosenbaum is neither.

He's a 30-year-old small-town Indiana guy who's single but devoted to friends and family. He will stipulate that it's hard to juggle a blossoming career and keeping up with loved ones.

"I always return phone calls to my friends," he says. "It may take me a week because I am on the set, but I do it. When I am studying my lines, I forget. I am out of reality."

When he has a break, reality sets in. "I'll start to remember that I have bills to pay or a birthday card to send off," he says. "My friends and family understand for the most part.

"At first, my friends would say: 'Oh, he's Hollywood. He's a big star.' I think they are learning that it's not that. They are being selfish. It's not about them.

"I'm just trying to get things going. In this business, you can be out of work tomorrow. I can be in and out like that. Hey, I am just trying to get my stuff together."

His grandmother doesn't always understand, but then Rosenbaum knows that "she doesn't have to."

"She'll call me and put this guilt trip on me. 'I think you don't love me anymore.' It's like, 'Grandma, it's only been a week. I work 15 hours a day. I love you.' "

He did make it up to her by going to New York with her recently and seeing three Broadway shows.

Of course, the week after their visit - which he describes as "awesome" - Grandmother is back, saying, "Why don't you ever call me?" he jokes.

"Smallville" (9 p.m. Tuesdays, WBXX, Channel 20) took up close to 10 months of his year. He used the short time for hiatus to do a movie called "Bringing Down the House" with Steve Martin.

He also did voice work for "Justice League," the Cartoon Network animated series in which he speaks for the superhero called The Flash.

Production on season two for "Smallville" - a revisionist version of the Superman story - begins in a couple of weeks.

Rosenbaum would not mind having a little bit more time off.

"It was fun to get away from (Lex) for a while, put on a wig and do something else," he says.

As Lex, Rosenbaum shaved his brown hair off. During this interview, his hair is starting to grow into a stylish burr.

"People still recognize me with hair," he says. "It's nice to have a little respect from people and the industry."

"It's hard to think of myself as a celebrity," he says. "I'm not just being humble. I'm just Michael Rosenbaum from Newberg, Ind.

"When you say I am on TV every week, I guess that makes me a celebrity. I just don't feel like one. It's funny because all of a sudden Nike is giving me free stuff.

"It's like, 'Wow, why are they giving me free stuff?' And people are telling me every day, 'Hey, I love your show.' It just makes it weird when I am sitting there having dinner with a friend, and someone wants an autograph.

"I'm just not used to any of that yet."