When she called me with an unusual assignment, my editor didn't describe it as "Mission Impossible." But perhaps she should have. Trying to confirm or disprove a Hollywood rumor feels a lot like a entering enemy territory.

I ended up there in the wake of a nasty rumor about "The Beach" star Leonardo DiCaprio. In Israel, some teenagers believe word that Leo allegedly likened kissing a Jewish girl to kissing a pig. How could an international celebrity say such a thing, let alone any decent human being?

It certainly seemed unlikely given Leo's profile. In a recent interview with "Talk" magazine about his new film, Leo comes across as decidely responsible and increasingly mature, both on screen and behind the scenes. As writer Aaron Latham told Leo, "I think a lot of people are going to say you grew up in this movie."

What's more, Leo recently co-narrated, with Winona Ryder (who is Jewish), a CD-ROM produced by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation entitled "Survivors: Testimonies of the Holocaust." This collection provides detailed first-person accounts from actual survivors. It turns out, Leo has personal reasons to be sympathetic. His mother was born in Germany "...right when World War II was hitting," Leo told "Talk." "She had a really messed-up life."

Even so, trying to get a concrete refutation of the rumor from Leo's "people" was surprisingly difficult, even perplexing. My first call was to the local public library, where I supposedly got the number for Leo's publicist. I was given the name of Gold Marshak Liedtke in Burbank, Calif. And I left a message with a live receptionist but got no response. When I called back, the receptionist not only told me that GML no longer represents Leo. She also told me no one does. How could that be? How could a big star like Leo be agent-free?

I was willing to bet she was feeding me a line. So I called the library one more time, asked for the number of the Screen Actors Guild, called L.A. again, waited on hold... And voila. Within minutes my hunch was confirmed. Leo does have an agent, Artists Management Group. I called, left a message, waited a while and called again. Leo's agent, Rick Yorn, declined comment but at least he didn't stonewall me completely. When I asked if Leo has a publicist, he referred me to Cindy Guangenti at BWR.

I thought I might be getting somewhere. At least until I spoke to Cindy. I called, told the receptionist why I wanted to speak to her and waited on hold. Suddenly, a voice broke through, booming, "Why would he say something like this? This is so ridiculous."

Yes, it was Cindy, the publicist. She flatly denied the rumor. "People need to leave him alone. It's nothing he would ever say. He would never speak like that." At that point in the conversation, Cindy made it very clear that was all she was gonna give me. She wasn't going to answer any more questions, not even about Leo's films. She wouldn't even fax me his bio.

I went back to my editors with the information I'd gathered but now they wanted to know if Leo had any Jewish friends. And was there any truth to the rumor that he once dated the Jewish Kate Moss?

I called the library again (we're on a first name basis now). And it turns out, Kate has an agent, too. And he practically laughed when I asked him if Kate Moss is Jewish. She isn't. And she's never dated Leo either.

As Leo's other Jewish connections, I decided to call Bonnie Liedtke again to ask if she is as Jewish as her names sounds. Bad idea. The receptionist actually yelled at me to stop calling. Risking her temper, I waited a few days, and called again.

Score! "Bonnie isn't Jewish," another receptionist said. "But I am and I'm Leo's friend." When I asked for her name, nonetheless, she declined. But she did say that actor Scott Bloom is Leo's friend. He may or may not be part-Jewish. It turns out that Bonnie is Scott's agent, but when I asked if she would confirm if Scott is Jewish, all I got was another "no comment."

The run-around I was getting was typical, according to a Hollywood reporter who prefers to remain anonymous. "The press person thinks that by trying to ignore something, it's going to go away. But for the most part it doesn't. And it's a disservice to their client who is paying them X amount of dollars a month to either promote or protect their image."

To test his theory, I called Cindy one more time. This go-round, I explained that it would help dispel the rumor if she would give us some more information about Leo's Jewish contacts. "I'm sure he has lots of Jewish friends, but we are not going to go down this whole road," she said.

At least she could say that. I'd already been down the road and I wanted off. In the meantime, Leo is friends with Scott, who may or may not be Jewish. He never dated Kate, who isn't Jewish. He has lots of other Jewish friends but we don't know who they are. Except for maybe Steven Spielberg and Winona Ryder. He won't let his publicist discuss anything that he's not promoting. And apparently that includes his previous films, because she won't talk about those either. Welcome to the Hollywood rumor mill.

Freelance writer Lisa Alcalay Klug, an alumna of Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, is a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press. Her work has also appeared in Self magazine, Forbes ASAP, The New York Times and other publications.