HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — As someone who has typically managed to stay out of the tabloids, one can imagine Natalie Portman's horror when a rumored kiss with Sean Penn made headlines last year.
"He's obviously someone I'm friends with," the 28-year-old actress explains in the latest issue of Marie Claire. "I mean, not 'hey, wassup?' friends, but we were all on the [Cannes 2008] jury together—Alfonso [Cuarón] and Marjane [Satrapi]—and we had a really great time, and then...It was one of those things where you're like, 'Oh, my God! I'm that person who's caught in this sh--ty rumor brigade.' You can't win. You don't say anything and everyone's like, 'It's true.' You say something, and you're keeping the story alive. It's bad, bad news."
Perhaps one of the reasons Portman has managed to escape the wrath of the tabloids is her devotion to work has kept her away from the party scene. In fact, Portman, who next stars in the Jim Sheridan film Brothers, was a complete square until her days at Harvard.
"OK, so I didn't really go to high school parties," she says, "and yeah, I didn't touch pot till I was in my 20s. I didn't get flat-out drunk until I went to college. But I think that's a good thing in many ways."
Portman, who is single after recently splitting with musician Devendra Banhart, also dishes on her back and forth life as a vegetarian. She tells the mag that she got back to her vegan ways again when her Brothers co-star Tobey Maguire brought his own vegan chef to the set.
Says Portman: "I was like, 'Um, could you make two of those?'" And I'd make a cute face, and they'd roll their eyes and give me another falafel."
Also see: Natalie Portman Pictures
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