“Stars – they’re just like us,” mutters Sofia Vergara at one point in Garry Marshall’s upcoming mutant rom-com “New Year’s Eve”, a follow-up of sorts to the director’s hugely-successful 2010 portmanteau film “Valentine’s Day”. And it’s true, you know.

Case in point: “High School Musical” dreamboat Zac Efron. Sure, he may be tall, handsome, famous and wealthy and have amazing hair, but like any average twenty-something-year-old young man he’s also got a thing for MILFs. Specifically, in this case, the still-beautiful 53-year-old movie star Michelle Pfeiffer.

“I met Michelle a few years ago during ‘Hairspray’ and had a huge crush on her, always, from day one,” said Efron, speaking about his last collaboration with the triple-Oscar nominee. “And back then I was very, very young and very bashful, and around her I tended to put my foot in my mouth a lot. I didn’t really know what to say to her, and everything just came out wrong…I didn’t know what to do. But then I got to talk on the phone with [her] about this part, and she said, ‘I think we should take this to the next level. We should…get a kiss in there.’ And I was like, ‘I’m in! I’m in this movie! Sign me up! Let’s do it!’…It was awesome.”

And then, to Michelle: “Every second with you was amazing.”

“Aww!” cried a chorus of female voices, resounding in the rarified air of the swanky Beverly Hilton ballroom where the film’s press conference was currently being held.

“We didn’t really talk that much before at all, until we showed up. And I think he was a little disappointed when he opened my trailer door and there sat ‘Ingrid’,” said Pfeiffer, referring to her mousy character, a repressed executive secretary. “And his little face just kind of fell. I felt really bad. But I think probably the sweetest thing about him was that he never let on, and he still won’t admit how disappointed he was!”

“She looked stunning, absolutely stunning,” Efron responded adoringly.

And so it went.

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