Zac and Vanessa shun limelight!

Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens did very few red-carpet interviews Monday night at a splashy party in Hollywood celebrating the Dec. 11 DVD release of "High School Musical 2." They also skipped the press junket. So, are they becoming a couple of prima donnas?

Not a chance, sources confided. But because these two young stars are so hounded by paparazzi everywhere they go, there is a fear of overexposure when there is still another "High School Musical" movie to make.

"We're doing 'High School Musical 3' for the big screen," director Kenny Ortega told me this week. "We're back at East High, final year, and we're gonna bring in some new characters and have some fun. Mix it up a bit."

When Kenny launched the franchise last year, Zac and Vanessa and the rest of the cast were unknowns. Now, they have surpassed the likes of the Olsen twins and Nicole Richie as bigger gets for paparazzi.

I wondered if the director ever worries that it might be too much attention, too soon, for his young cast.

"Yeah, I do," he admitted. "Not that they can't handle it or that they can't be responsible. It's just that they're chased around a lot. I'm discovering that it's hard for them to have personal lives - just to step outside of an apartment and go down the street and grab a sandwich is a thing of their past. That bothers me."

He said all they are trying to do is live their lives.

"They love new adventure, they love being kids, they love going to the movies, they love hanging out with friends and going to parties and that part of being young has kind of been taken away from them," Kenny said. "Their interests are what makes them interesting people. You start to pull them back and not allow them to have that sort of full experience."

[Source: LA Daily News]