Right after the photos came out of Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis sucking face at an industry party, Ashton’s ex Demi Moore played a little press game of her own, and leaked a story that she was dating an actor from New Zealand named Martin Henderson. Life & Style had details of a romantic weekend getaway the two allegedly shared, along with some suspiciously clear close-up photos of them together, looking happy. Given that Demi regularly hides her face and scowls when the paparazzi come around, you can bet that the whole thing was carefully staged. The story read like all the others we’ve heard from Demi’s PR team: she’s sexy, she’s carefree, she’s banging a hot young actor. It looked like Henderson was in on it too, as he could surely use the publicity.

Well cue the denials. A “source” told E! that the two are just friends who were traveling with a group of people, and weren’t on a date or a weekend trip together.

If Demi Moore wanted to match Ashton Kutcher rumor for rumor, well…mission accomplished.

While a photo of her ex looking snuggly with Mila Kunis made the rounds, the seemingly happy-and-healthy-again actress was on a trip to New Preston, Conn., where she spent an awful lot of time with hunky New Zealander Martin Henderson.

The 37-year-old actor, best known as Naomi Watts’ ill-fated ex in The Ring and for the ABC series Off the Map, was spotted hiking and dining with Moore, 49, prompting a fair amount of gushing about their romantic potential and a report that they’re secretly dating.

Sources tell E! News, however, that Moore and Henderson are just friends—and the romantic hike they reportedly took was a group outing with about a dozen other people.

They met through a mutual acquaintance who arranged last week’s quick jaunt to Connecticut.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with Moore making a new friend, right? Especially a strapping, handsome male friend.

[From E! Online]

So what happened? Was Henderson dating Demi casually and did he get peeved to see the story in the gossip press? Was he just a guy hanging out with a group of people that included Demi, and does he resent being linked with her? Remember how Joe Manganiello denied that he was dating Demi, but didn’t deign to mention her name? Henderson is playing this better, and seems to be speaking off the record. Or maybe Demi decided she wanted to squeeze more mileage out of the story and decided to play the “just friends” card, although I doubt it. Demi’s got a one-note press strategy and she wants Ashton to think she’s moved on. If she had, she wouldn’t be planting stories in Life & Style.