Scarlett Johansson Is Half Sean Penn's Age; Thoughts?

Like a lot of people I clicked on the item about Sean Penn and Scarlett Johansson recently sharing an intimate dinner at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. The meal comes on the heels of their kinda-weird brief jaunt to Mexico together (they spent less than a day there).

As I read it I thought things like, 'Wow she's moving on from her split with hubby Ryan Reynolds and I guess things really are kaput between Sean and Robin Wright.'

The 'Iron Man 2' star separated from Ryan Reynolds in December. The pair was wed in September 2008. Penn and Wright married in 1996 and after a couple of breakups and reconciliations divorced last year. They have two children, daughter Dylan and son Hopper.

And then suddenly I thought wait a minute, just how old are these budding lovebirds, anyway? Much to my dismay, Penn turns 51 this August and Johansson turned 26 in November. That's a nearly 25 year age gap between them.

Let's put it this way Johansson is only six years older than Dylan, Penn's daughter with Wright.

We all know that if the sexes were reversed the tabloids would be screaming headlines with words like cougar and boy toy. When Madonna dates one of her increasingly younger boyfriends the press always finds out how old the young man's mother is and compares her age to Madonna's. (Ironically Madonna and Sean Penn were married for four years in the eighties.)

Am I being a prude by thinking it's just a tad skeevy that Penn is dating someone literally half his age? Could it just be noted that there is a quarter of a century age difference between the two?

I'm hoping that this is a fling and the two of them find partners closer to their age. Wouldn't it be great to see Penn holding hands with someone his own age or dare I say it, a couple of years older? I think that would be a really radical thing for the famously liberal firebrand actor to do.