Vanessa Anne Hudgens is all too ready to admit that the nude pic that we published yesterday is the real deal. She released a bland statement via her publicist acknowledging the picture and saying it was a private photo. She never said that it wasn’t meant to get out, just that it was “unfortunate” that it did:

The Disney sweetheart’s rep tells Us, “This was a photo which was taken privately. It is a personal matter and it is unfortunate that this has become public.”

[From US Weekly]

I had barely heard of the girl before this incident, and most of you mentioned the same in the comments. A tastefully posed nude pic should be just the thing to launch her film career after High School Musical peaked, at least that’s probably what her publicist is hoping.

Maybe she wasn’t getting enough mileage out of that high profile relationship with her costar, Zac Efron, and decided to kick it up a notch. Bikini and posed makeout pictures only go so far.

Hudgens is shown on 7/10/07 at the LA premiere of Hairspray, thanks to PRPhotos.