Sean Gets a Lift

When we first heard the report, we were astonished!

Sean Penn sighted hitchhiking in Malibu?

But it’s true--a friend of ours picked him up on PCH near Broad Beach the other day and ferried him all the way to Hollywood. Penn explained that he had been doing this for several weeks because he couldn’t get insurance for his wheels.

And two other Outtakes spies told us they’d recently given him rides--one on Wilshire Boulevard near the 405, the other near Doheny and Beverly coming from his Century City office.

“He was extremely pleasant, not the ogre everyone thinks he is,” said the latter driver. “He was very shy and sweet. Just a regular guy.”

Penn’s attorney, Howard Weitzman, was elusive about why the regular guy (and parolee) was uncovered insurance-wise. But he said Penn was “in the process” of getting a policy and didn’t want to break the law by driving without one. “So Sean was dutifully following the law,” Weitzman explained.

But . . . the sheriff’s office informs us that if Penn was standing anywhere on the asphalt portion of the street or highway with his thumb out, he wasn’t following the law.