Scarlett Johansson has gained quite a bit of publicity from her email fling with Barack Obama, but apparently she won’t be crooning “Happy birthday, Mr. President” in her breathy baritone any time soon. The presidential contender has slapped her down, saying that he barely knows who this chick is:

“She sent one email to Reggie, who forwarded it to me,” Obama said, referring to his 26-year-old personal assistant, Reggie Love. “I write saying, ‘thank you Scarlett for doing what you do,’ and suddenly we have this email relationship.”

Barack probably went on to say that he didn’t think much of her movies, but that’s enough public humiliation for one news cycle. To be honest, I share Scarlett’s pain here. It’s easy to read too much into a chance encounter with someone more famous than you are, and it hurts a lot when you have to face the reality that they just don’t have time for you. I told Scarlett as much while we were sipping Bloody Marys beachside at Eden Rock on St. Barts. Okay, actually we were in the parking lot of Whole Foods in Santa Monica. And it wasn’t Bloody Marys. “Pepper spray,” I guess, would be technically more accurate. No words were exchanged, but I felt we really made a connection.