Ryan Phillippe Defends Abbie Cornish

Attention celebrity gossip bloggers: Abbie Cornish is not a home wrecker!

So states Ryan Phillippe adamantly in the new issue of W magazine.

"I had difficulties in my relationship, and in my marriage, long before I ever met her," the actor said about Cornish, who has been accused of breaking up the marriage between Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon in 2006. "She and I are close friends, and as far as if there is any future, that is not where we are at now."

Come on, Ryan, you're saying Abbie Cornish really isn't your girlfriend?

Give us some dirt here.

"That is what other people like to say or like to assume," he said, referring to entertainment news outlets that have claimed he and Abbie have been dating for years. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a friendship, and we are getting to know each other in a really difficult situation."

We don't feel much sympathy for Phillippe, but he does at least come across as human in describing the divorce as "the darkest, saddest place I had ever been," while adding "I wanted to take time to make sure that my kids were okay and to build a new life that was going to be suitable to being a single parent."