Scarlett Johansson Defends Obama E-mails

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Scarlett Johansson is speaking out about the media hooplah surrounding her e-mail exchanges with Barack Obama -- electronic exchanges that have been characterized as more than just political in nature.

"It seemed to me to be like a product of extreme sexism," Johansson told the Associated Press, "and I kept thinking to myself, 'God, if this was just, like, Kal Penn or George Clooney or any of the other [Obama] surrogates or supporters ... there wouldn't be [any] question about it. Nobody would even talk about it."

Obama has told reporters that Johansson didn’t write to his personal e-mail address -- rather, his assistant forwarded him a message from her, and Obama replied.

"I was merely trying to express my delight at Obama's commitment to his campaign in every aspect and his interest and his support (in) his surrogates and his staff and his fellows, and how wonderful and refreshing that is. And it was manipulated into such an unfortunate media frenzy of kind of a non-story," Johansson said.

Catch the 23-year-old beauty in Woody Allen's new flick, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona,' in theaters August 15 and co-starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.

Published 8/6/08 by the Insider