Mingling and telling! A Saturday, Jan. 18 blog post Piers Morgan wrote for The Daily Mail's Event magazine is gaining mid-week traction for some juicy gossip the 48-year-old journalist revealed. In his column, the CNN star recounts attending the Jan. 11 Help Haiti Home gala, and confirmed that Sean Penn and Charlize Theron are, indeed, dating.
"I walked over to Sean's table, where he was sitting with new girlfriend Charlize Theron," Morgan wrote. "'I'm so glad you two have got together,' I said, 'Sean's a great guy.'"
"'I know,' she smiled, putting her hand round his shoulder," the Piers Morgan Tonight host recalled of speaking with Theron, 38.
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Later in the night, Morgan had a similar conversation with Penn, 53. "At 2 a.m., Sean came over, and bear-hugged me," Morgan wrote. "'Congrats on a great night,' I said. 'And congrats on Charlize too.' He laughed. 'She's a keeper, that's for sure . . . well, I'll do my best to keep her anyway!'"
During the gala, Penn (who heads up the Help Haiti Home charity) also publicly acknowledged Theron in a touching speech he gave before auctioning off a Jeff Koons sculpture made out of 67 guns he previously owned.
"I'm a self-proclaimed Alpha male who owns 67 firearms. But I've had my mind changed about guns by a strong woman, a beautiful South African woman," Penn told the audience, referring to Theron. "I don't need these cowardly instruments of violence and destruction, none of us do." (Morgan explained in his column that Theron has been against guns since "her mother shot her drunken abusive father dead, after he came home firing his own gun and threatening to kill them" when she was just 15.)
Rumors that a romance was blossoming between Penn and Theron began earlier this month when the Oscar-winning stars were photographed ringing in the New Year together in Hawaii.
Speculation grew at the Jan. 11 gala when the two were seen laughing and sitting together. "It looks serious and comfortable," an eyewitness told Us of their relationship.
