How Many Men Have You Slept With? Anna Faris Tells All -- Is This Necessary?

Credit: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

I first saw Anna Faris in the movie House Bunny and thought she was very talented. For those of you who laugh at my love for that movie, it's because Anna plays a gorgeous Playboy bunny who is so nice to others in the face of them being mean to her. The movie serves as a great little bubble-gum lesson to maintain composure irrespective of who tries to take you down in life.

Now, the What's Your Number? star told New York Post's Page Six on Tuesday that she only slept with a handful of men before marrying Chris Pratt in 2009. "I'm at five," the actress said. "Don't you think five is kind of low? I'm 34! I'm not a very good lover. I'm so nervous about my sexuality."

In What's Your Number?, Anna plays a woman who's slept with nearly 20 men and has yet to find Mr. Right. "I think 20 is kind of low," she quipped. "Shouldn't it be like 70?" When her character learns the average woman sleeps with 10.5 men before finding "the one," she tracks down her past lovers to see if she's already slept with her soulmate.

Given the theme of her latest movie, it's easy to understand how many men she slept with became a topic of conversation. So, let's go beyond the obvious about how Anna revealed "too much information." What's of interest to me is why she felt it necessary to tell her number at all.

For couple's who just start dating, this conversation happens frequently. Man or woman, if your number is too high, you're promiscuous. If your number is too low, you're inexperienced. Whether your number is like the perfect bowl of porridge and is "just right" -- well, it's in the proverbial eyes of the beholder (which is also based upon how many people he or she has slept with). The whole conversation is a land mine of problems waiting to happen. On that note, should the conversation happen at all? My answer is, "no."

I'm sure many will disagree. After all, if you don't ask, how can you calculate whether your future or current partner has an STD? Yet, we all hear stories about someone who catches an STD after only having sex once, or was completely faithful but caught an STD because their partner cheated. The bottom line is that there's no rhyme or reason when it comes to assessing probability based on how many partners one has had. Up to and including whether a person has an STD to their emotional availability.

My advice to men and women alike is don't disclose. It's no one's business and like it or not, it can be held against you. If you're obsessed with finding out, ask yourself what will knowing someone's number truly tell you.

As for Anna, my guess is that she wanted to defend herself. In the movie she slept with 19 men and I think she wanted to clarify that her number wasn't anywhere near that high. The fact she felt the need to dignify herself, though, is beneath her. Were her number 19 or 91, it's no one's business.