ZAC Efron insists he’s happy that Robert Pattinson came on the showbiz scene — because now he can have a life!

The High School Musical actor says he’s delighted to give way to the Twilight hunk because Pattinson deflects the attention away from him.

“It’s great because now I don’t get so much female attention,” Efron said.

Zac, 22, recently revealed that he wants to star in a West End show.

“I would love to if I could find the right opportunity, I think it’s a matter of time to be honest but I don’t know, I just want to make a break, so it’s harder to be very specific,” he said.

Zac’s new film, Me and Orson Welles, hits movie theaters November 25.

ZAC Efron says he accepted his role in new film Me and Orson Wells because he wanted to try something “fresh”.

The actor — who shot to fame playing clean-cut Troy Bolton in Disney’s popular High School Musical movie franchise — admits he was looking for something a bit “riskier” when took the part.

“I was looking for that opportunity, something fresh,” Zac said, insisting he wasn’t concerned his large, mostly teen fan base, wouldn’t have heard of Orson Welles.

“Perhaps the fans that don’t know about Orson maybe have more of an opinion now when they study this stuff at school… some insight into the early life of this American icon,” he said.

Zac also revealed how is fans managed to track him down while he was filming on the Isle of Man — a small island located in the Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland.

“I was looking forward to that seclusion,” he said. “From what I heard it was a pretty quiet place and there weren’t a lot of people there. But they found it. But I felt pretty welcome.”

VANESSA Hudgens and Zac Efron haven’t called it quits — despite reports to the contrary.

In its latest issue, American tabloid the National Enquirer declares, “Zac and Vanessa Finished — she just doesn’t know it yet.”

But sources close to the couple — who met while making the first High School Musical flick in 2005 — insist Efron, 22, and Hudgens, 20, are still going strong.

“They spent months together up in Vancouver, where they are both filming movies,” one insider told Us Weekly magazine.

“Things are going well with them. They are happy.”

ZAC Efron dreams of starring in a West End show.

The High School Musical actor — who has the lead role in new film Me and Orson Welles – says he’s keen to try something different in London’s famous theater district.

“I would love to if I could find the right opportunity, I think it’s a matter of time to be honest but I don’t know, I just want to make a break, so it’s harder to be very specific,” he said.

Zac, 22, recently insisted he isn’t planning to become the next Tom Cruise.

“I’m not the next Tom Cruise because, there will never be another,” Efron said. “I don’t want to go and copy Top Gun.”

“Tom emanated drive and focus and the desire to perform,” Efron said about a recent meeting with the 47-year-old Hollywood heavyweight. “He didn’t say it out loud, but I know he was thinking: ‘You’re probably going insane right now.’

“It’s not like he was giving me advice. ‘You’re gonna to do it and you’re gonna do it on your own. That’s the way it is. But you don’t have to go crazy: you don’t have to lose yourself in this.’”

ROBERT Pattinson admits he got starstruck when he met Zac Efron.

The hunky Twilight star says he was lost for words when he first crossed paths with the High School Musical actor.

“I met Zac Efron,” Pattinson told Britain’s OK! magazine. “He was a really cool guy. That was one of the first times I’d ever been star-struck, but just because his face is so specific, it’s kind of surreal.

“I’d like to meet Jack Nicholson.”

Rob, 23, recently revealed that he regrets having dental work for his role as vampire Edward Cullen.

“They tried to fix my teeth,” he said. “And they shaved these little gaps on, they tried to do an Invisalign thing. And I put the Invisalign thing on and was like, ‘I don’t wanna wear that s–t’.

“Those gaps between my teeth have decayed and caused me so many problems. That’s the one thing I regret doing because I wasn’t thinking at the time.”

ZAC Efron had to put on his brave face at Nylon Guy magazine’s recent party for its November issue at XIV in LA — after he was followed around by a group of women in their 40s!

The High School Musical star is the mag’s current cover boy.

“One of them ended up following him to the bathroom and just waited for him to come out,” a source told New York Post gossip column Page Six. “As soon as he did, she cornered him and asked to take his picture for her 5-year-old daughter. He was very gracious.”

Efron, 22, has previously revealed how he’s scared of his fans’ moms.

“It’s funny because the kids can be shy but the moms feel like they know you to a degree,” he said in March this year.

“They come across as very comfortable in some ways — almost motherly.

“They want to give me advice and talk to me and ask how I’m doing, if I’m OK, and sometimes they want to go and get a bite to eat. It can be intimidating.”

ZAC Efron has revealed how he wore the same pair of jeans for eight weeks solid!

The hunky actor says he wanted his favorite G-Stars to get that dirty, distressed denim look so refused to were anything else until the trousers were stripped of stiffness and sported “yellow whiskers” at the front.

“They’re my favorite jeans,” he said. “I wore them all throughout High School Musical 3.

“I even wore them hiking. You have to wear them everywhere to get them right.”

Efron, 22, recently insisted he isn’t planning to become the next Tom Cruise.

“I’m not the next Tom Cruise because, there will never be another,” Efron said. “I don’t want to go and copy Top Gun.”

“Tom emanated drive and focus and the desire to perform,” Zac said about his recent meeting with the Hollywood heavyweight. “He didn’t say it out loud, but I know he was thinking: ‘You’re probably going insane right now.’

“It’s not like he was giving me advice. ‘You’re gonna to do it and you’re gonna do it on your own. That’s the way it is. But you don’t have to go crazy: you don’t have to lose yourself in this.’”

Zac Efron isn’t planning to become the next Tom Cruise.

The High School Musical actor insists he doesn’t intend to follow in the footsteps of the Top Gun star.

“I’m not the next Tom Cruise because, there will never be another,” Efron said. “I don’t want to go and copy Top Gun.”

“Tom emanated drive and focus and the desire to perform,” Efron said about a recent meeting with the 47-year-old Hollywood heavyweight. “He didn’t say it out loud, but I know he was thinking: ‘You’re probably going insane right now.’

“It’s not like he was giving me advice. ‘You’re gonna to do it and you’re gonna do it on your own. That’s the way it is. But you don’t have to go crazy: you don’t have to lose yourself in this.’”

Zac, 21, says he admires Johnny Depp — and the way he keeps his private life private.

“This was an industry that once thrived on exposure — the more the better,” Efron said. “Today, I find that the most interesting people are hidden.

“Johnny Depp is one of the most interesting people in the business. What I would give to have a five-minute conversation with him.”

Zac Efron admits he used to annoy his parents when he was growing up — because he was “constantly” singing!

The High School Musical star admits his mom and dad got a little bit annoyed that their son kept breaking out into song.

“I was constantly singing,” Efron told Nylon Guys magazine. “I would hear things on the radio and just be about to spit them out instantly, with perfect memorization and tone. My parents were like, ‘Shut up. Please stop singing. It’s annoying.’ ”

Zac — who is currently dating his HSM costar Vanessa Hudgens — says he doesn’t discuss his success as a Disney actor with any of his friends.

“I try not to look at all of it,” he said. “You can’t enjoy or celebrate it — it’s not a real thing. The face on the lunchbox and sh*t — you can’t share that with your friends.”

Efron also revealed that he never watches his own movies –but he did make the effort to see his new film Me and Orson Wells.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever watched a movie I’m in and at the end I’m like, ‘OK! I didn’t check my watch once!’” he said.

Left: Barry Manilow at the 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards in Feb. Right: Zac Efron at August’s Teen Choice Awards.

The resemblance is uncanny. Heh.