The 20-year-old star of the forthcoming “High School Musical 3” feature film was rushed to the hospital Tuesday for an appendectomy, according to media reports.

Celebrity gossip site TMZ.com was first to report that Zac Efron had been rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for the emergency surgery.

The hospitalization came just one day after Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Productions announced there would be a third “High School Musical,” that all six original actors would be in it and that this time it would actually be a feature film.

Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman have all signed to star as high school seniors in “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” which will focus on the elaborate spring musical they are trying to stage before graduation, the studio said.

For Efron, the excitement of such an announcement was followed by an emergency visit to the hospital but he is safe and well now, a rep told People.com. “Zac had his appendix removed and is recuperating,” the rep said.

Disney’s official confirmation of the six actors’ participation in HSM 3 came after months of speculation about whether scandal-struck Hudgens would still be taken on board by the studio and whether the young actors had requested higher salaries.

In late November, Entertainment Weekly reported that Efron had finally signed to star in “High School Musical 3,” joining co-stars Hudgens and Tisdale for a $3 million cheque. Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman and Lucas Grabeel were said to be due back as well.

As to reports that the three stars were seeking salary raises, Efron would only comment that he had waited before signing a contract because he wanted a good script “If we all agree on a final script, then there's nothing that is going to hold us back from doing it,” he said at the time.

The teen heartthrob is currently filming the comedy “Seventeen” alongside Matthew Perry.

Filming for HSM 3 is scheduled to start in the spring according to Disney.

The first two films aired on The Disney Channel and were hugely successful. In August 2007, when “High School Musical 2” first aired, an estimated 18.6 million viewers tuned in, according to the studio.