Natalie Portman is denying all of those romance rumors between her and Sean Penn. The rumors have been swirling for about two months. Allegedly, Sean and Natalie were making out around the weekend of the Oscars. When Sean formally filed for separation from Robin Wright Penn in April, gossip soon heated up that Natalie might be the real reason for the split.

In her denial, Natalie Portman basically says that she and Sean are friends and nothing else. This in itself is a huge deal – Natalie Portman rarely, if ever, talks about her personal or dating life, so the rumor that she’s a “homewrecker” must have been bothering her. She’s a smart girl – smart enough to know that her good-girl image could be ruined by taking up with Sean Penn. But is she smart enough not to even get with Sean in the first place?

Natalie Portman says she isn’t cozying up to Sean Penn.

“Sean Penn is a friend and colleague,” the actress, 27, tells Usmagazine.com. “The reports that we are romantically involved are completely untrue.”

Tabloid Star magazine claimed that Penn, 48 — who recently filed for legal separation from his wife of 13 years, Robin Wright Penn — and Portman were “making out” at West Hollywood’s Sunset Tower Hotel in March.

The New York Post reported today the pair have been “cavorting.”

But Portman continues: “I normally do not respond to rumors about my private life, however, this repeatedly fabricated story has forced me to do so.”

Both Penn and Portman served on the jury of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Penn — who won his second Best Actor Oscar for his role in Milk earlier this year — initially filed for divorce from Wright Penn, 43, in 2007, but his petition was later dismissed. Three days later, she filed her own paperwork. In April 2008, the couple’s divorce petition was dismissed at their request.

Portman split from indie rocker Devendra Banhart last September after four months of dating.

[From US Weekly]

Nice mention of Devendra Banhart. For a quick refresher, Devandra Banhart is a Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter and some kind of icon to the indie-rock kids. That’s Natalie’s real type – those 20-something, whippet-thin hipster guys with dark hair. Not the over-40 Oscar winners who could just as easily spend the night with some hookers and cocaine. Big difference. Which makes me believe Natalie’s denial, hook, line and sinker. Sean is simply not her type.

Natalie and Sean are shown at Cannes on 5/25/08 and 5/13/08. Credit: ANG/Fame Pictures