20-year-old Zac Efron, who turns 21 in 9 days, takes the cover of Entertainment Weekly, looking hot for a very important photo issue.

The mag say the heartthrob “has big plans for his career… right after he stars in our photo portfolio.”

Here are some highlights from the interview:

On plotting his escape from the teen scene by transitioning from poster boy to Oscar contender: “I would love to just sit down and talk with Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp and pick their brains about their early careers. They do it because they love it, not because they enjoy being famous. You have to have good foresight and be really careful. If you don’t adapt and learn at a very young age, you can really mess up.”

On if he’s seen High School Musical 3: Senior Year: “I hope it’s better than the last one. (panics) I didn’t mean that the way it sounded!”

On getting paid to sing, dance and kiss his real-life girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens on the big screen: “After three movies together, Vanessa and I feel free to do whatever we want, and we’re just kind of silly and uninhibited. It felt like the best working vacation I’ve ever taken.”

To read the full cover article, including how appendicitis nearly killed Zac, visit EW.com.

There’s also behind-the-scenes footage of the photo shoot at ETOnline.com and EW.com, which also has a preview of Zac in Me & Orson Welles.

It’s what all the teeny boppers have been waiting for….. it’s official!  Disney Channel execs  just confirmed that they already starting work on High School Musical 4!So when do you think HSM 3 will come out ? Soon?  You know it’s still being filmed!What about the cast…. right?!?!?”Are we going to have all the cast back? Probably not,” Ross said. “Will we have some of them? I hope so.“

This picture has been going around on the internet and there is a split vote as to whether the boy in the picture is Zac Efron.

I’m on the fence on this one. It does look an awful lot like Zac. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it was. What do you think?

Trans World News has been reporting that there is a Zanessa sex tape going around. Apparently the story was told months ago and proven untrue. Now TWN is bringing the rumored story out again. But the story of course, is still untrue.

The report is that Vanessa is sitting under a Christmas tree wearing only a Santa hat, pasties to cover her breasts and a red thong with mistletoe decoration. Slowly Vanessa takes off her ‘attributes’ one by one and murmurers “I want Santa to come up my chimney because I’ve been a good little girl this year” at the end of her striptease.

This reported incident is actually from a postcard from the satire website Pug Bus. It is from September of last year.

So rest easy you Vanessa Hudgens fans. Hopefully she won’t be getting into anymore sex scandal trouble.