Efron tells 'Today' show that he now has a 'pocket-checking policy.' By John Mitchell
Zac Efron on the "Today" show Photo: NBC/ Getty
At last week's "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" premiere, the movie's star Zac Efron caused quite a stir when he pulled his hands out of his pants pockets and accidentally dropped a condom on the red carpet. Unfortunately for the handsome star, just a few days later, he was scheduled to hit the talk-show circuit to promote the animated flick, which in these gossipy times meant fielding questions about the embarrassing snafu.
His first stop was "Today," where a blushing Matt Lauer asked Efron about the condom drop and, well, the journalist seemed to be having a harder time talking about the incident than the movie star.
"Your name brings a lot of attention to this role and this movie, and there's something else that brought a lot of attention to this movie recently, Zac, at the premiere," Lauer said with a smile. "Yeah," Efron answered reluctantly, knowing where the conversation was headed.
Lauer then asked the "High School Musical" breakout to "take me through it." Efron didn't exactly want to do that, but he did assure the anchor that he "never really had a pocket-checking policy when I was going on the red carpet before, but now we've fully instated one."
"You dropped a ... a condom on the red carpet," Lauer elaborated, just to make sure everyone was on the same page, though he was clearly uncomfortable.
"That was really hard for you to say," the 24-year-old star observed.
Clearly embarrassed by the conversation but maintaining his cool, Efron agreed with Lauer that the "better to be safe than sorry" message he was sending was "a great message to add to the many messages of the film."
That's when things took a turn for the super-awkward. Lauer tried to move straight into a conversation about Efron's production company. "You've got your own production company," Lauer started before laughing. "And that's a bad pun, by the way: your own production company."
