They were one of Hollywood's most-talked-about romantic on-screen stars in 2008: 19-year-old Dev Patel and 24-year-old  Freida Pinto, the charismatic leads of the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire.

For months, the two denied they were lovers.

But now Patel's mom seems to confirm that her son has been flying to Israel to be with Pinto, who is filming a movie in Israel and the West Bank.

Patel and Pinto were recently caught by a tabloid photographer in a quasi intimate moment at a restaurant in Israel, thus stoking the rumor mill.

What is actually more interesting than the possible romantic exploits of the two young actors is the movie Pinto is filming.

Pinto a starring in Miral, a film by director Julian Schnabel about Hind Husseini, a legendary Palestinian woman who founded an orphanage for Palestinian children who were orphaned by the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, one of the most controversial attacks by Jewish militants fighting to establish the state of Israel.

The mere mention of Deir Yassin in these parts can start a fierce argument and its place in Israeli-Palestinian history is a source of constant friction.

Earlier this month, Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, fired a guide who compared the plight of Holocaust victims to Palestinians like those from Deir Yassin.

"Yad Vashem talks about the Holocaust survivors' arrival in Israel and about creating a refuge here for the world's Jews," the fired guide, Itamar Shapira, told Haaretz. "I said there were people who lived on this land and mentioned that there are other traumas that provide other nations with motivation. The Holocaust moved us to establish a Jewish state and the Palestinian nation's trauma is moving it to seek self-determination, identity, land and dignity, just as Zionism sought these things."

Shapira said he mentioned Deir Yassin because the ruins of the village can be seen from Yad Vashem.

It's not clear how much Schnabel's film will focus on the controversial massacre and how much it will focus on the establishment of Husseini's orphanage in the aftermath.

So far, though, the fact that Deir Yassin is a foundation for the film seems to have been ignored or obscured by the Israeli media.

In writing today about the Hollywood romance, Haaretz simply said the film "focuses on the interwoven lives of a few Israeli and Palestinian women, from the early years of the state through the early 1990s."

Last month, The Jerusalem Post omitted Deir Yassin in stating that the film "chronicles Hind Husseini's effort to establish an orphanage in the city following the creation of the state in 1948."

As it happens, Israel is celebrating its Independence Day tomorrow.