Yep, I thought, "who is this woman and why do we care?" initially, too. I took that a step further with, "AND if she's gonna get knocked up by a college kid, why'd she pick one that looks so wimpy?" but that's sort of beside the point and falls under that "we love who we love" umbrella that's tough to dispute. So, she's 43, she likes baby-faced boys with perma-smirks, good for her.
The "who is she?" bit reads a little like a description of any of our many Hollywood socialites (writer, director, "conceptual artist" (???????)), but apparently the fact the she lives in London and is good buds with Elton John lends a certain credibility to her otherwise ambiguous career. And Stella McCartney, she's friends with her, too.
And "who's he?" Well, he's a 19 year-old "up-and-coming-actor" according to all gossip site accounts. Meaning he'll probably spend a few years as a huge hit in the UK, then will show up in a period piece with Kiera Knightly OR we'll see him in an ensemble cast Woody Allen endeavor opposite ScarJo for his US debut. That, or he'll date a girl from The Hills if it doesn't work out with Mrs Robinson.
They met during the filming of a flick he's cast in and that she directed.
She's a two-time cancer survivor with a few daughters of her own (daughters who, presumable, like their new Step-Dad-to-Be because he's "hot" and more fun to keep around the house than some "fat bloke" according to this decently sensitive Harper's Bazaar article.
There are two camps on this generational age-gap flip-flop. One camp insists that if it were a 43 year-old MALE director knocking up his 19 year-old FEMALE star no one would bat an eye. The other camp just winces and says "ew, gross."
I'm going with "serious mid-life crisis."
The woman beat cancer.
The woman feels either a little invincible OR a little like she's looked the bucket in the mouth (wait, that's mixing idioms....had her foot poised just behind the bucket?) and the woman wants to make sure she's living life to the fullest in the meantime.
The woman believes she can do anything, including bag that kid her daughters would love to take to prom.
After the cancer treatment and the post-cancer divorce, the woman needs to feel like she "still has it" and the attention from a kid young enough to be her son is just what the oncologist ordered. Er, so to speak. She's testing the "revenge is the best medicine" waters.
HOWEVER: while it's been awhile since I've spent time with any 19 year-old boys, I have spent a little bit of time with 20-something boys and I can vouch for the fact that they're not going to be able to keep up with a 43 year-old woman anywhere outside of, oh, the bedroom, unless there's either a) something stupidly overdeveloped about his sense of domestic responsibility or b) he's looking for a mother figure and she's game to be both mother and grandmother all at once. While caring for a brand new baby.
It just seems biologically, developmentally, sociologically, psychologically and in all other "-lly" ways impossible that any BOY his age would be, in the long run, a compatible husband for a woman her age. Yep, they're getting married. Til death do them part. Baby and all. Maybe this kid is the golden exception to the rule that the gentlemen mature (socially) a more slowly than the ladies. Maybe he's dreamed of proposing to veritable Mom since he was in gradeschool (which was, by the way, an entire 7 years ago). But it just seems doomed.
I don't like doomed.
I'll stay tuned, see how they fare, but I fear even Elton John won't be able to save them from...well, themselves soon enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment