Gossip

Actor Zac Efron was punched in the face last week during a brawl in the Skid Row section of Los Angeles, leading friends to worry why the actor—who has had drug problems in the past—was there. Efron told the cops he was on a late-night sushi run in a sketchy neighborhood under the Harbor Freeway when his car ran out of gas. When a man Efron described as his bodyguard became involved in an altercation with a couple of “transients,” Efron says he swung a vodka bottle at the men to fend off the attack, and was punched. “It was the hardest I’ve ever been hit in my life,” Efron told cops. He has reportedly received treatment for a cocaine addiction in the past, and TMZ.com reported that his friends fear that he may have fallen off the wagon. “[Zac] goes out rarely,” said one friend. “The idea of him driving for miles to go to some sushi restaurant in downtown L.A. after midnight is preposterous.”

James Franco wants everybody to know he did not sleep with Lindsay Lohan. Franco was named on a list of famous conquests allegedly written and left by the party-loving actress in the bar of the Beverly Hills Hotel, and later obtained by In Touch. The list also includes Justin Timberlake, Ashton Kutcher, and Heath Ledger; several other high-profile names, some of them married men, were redacted for legal reasons. Franco seemed very eager to deny the rumors in an interview with Los Angeles magazine. “Lindsay herself has told lies about me with her people-she’s-slept-with list,” he insisted.

Taylor Swift can’t find a date, since men are afraid she’ll write a nasty song about them, says RadarOnline.com. The pop star’s exhausted advisers have tried setting up the 24-year-old pop star with various young men, but are finding no takers. “None of the guys she shows interest in want to be the subject of a mean song six months down the road,” a source told the website. Swift has used her failed relationships as material for several songs, including “I Knew You Were Trouble,” reportedly written about singer John Mayer, and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” detailing her breakup from actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Her advisers are recommending that Swift focus on making some good female friends.

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