The FINANCIAL -- Hollywood's Oscar-winning actor and political activist Sean Penn has left for Havana to take an interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the U.S. entertainment news website TMZ reported.

The TMZ said that Penn, an old-time Democratic supporter and a personal friend of U.S. President Barack Obama "is going to the land of Fidel as a journalist, writing a story for Vanity Fair [magazine] about how the Obama administration has affected Cuba."

The website added that Penn left for Havana on Saturday along with businesswoman and philanthropist Diana Jenkins on board of her private jet.

In 2006, Castro underwent intestinal surgery and ceded power to his younger brother, Raul, who officially became president in February 2008. Since then, Castro has rarely been seen in public.

Despite U.S. President Obama's declared aim of "recasting" relations with Cuba, which were severed after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, Washington's trade embargo on Cuba remains in place.

However, in April this year the U.S. canceled restrictions on money transfers from former Cuban nationals living in the U.S. to their relatives in Cuba.

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