Love is a many-splendored factor, particularly while you’re gawking at it from the skin. On this column, we’ll be analyzing the superstar {couples} (or, sometimes, friendship pairs) that give us hope for our personal romantic futures and making an attempt to be taught what we will from their well-documented bonds.

It seems like simply yesterday I used to be expressing my regret-tinged admiration for Meryl Streep and her longtime sculptor husband Don Gummer’s divorce, however as I actually ought to have identified, you may’t maintain La Streep down: The legendary actress was noticed this week grabbing dinner at an Italian restaurant in Santa Monica with none apart from Martin Brief. Sure, they enact romance reverse each other on Solely Murders within the Constructing, and will simply have been discussing subsequent season’s plot, or planning a present for the crew collectively, however…I die!

This isn’t the primary time rumors about Streep and Brief have circulated; after prompting from Individuals final month, Brief’s rep advised the outlet that the pair had been “simply excellent pals, nothing extra.” Okay, I wish to respect what I’m listening to, however…I’ve heard that earlier than? From celebrities who turned out to be in love? Brief repeated that the 2 had been “very shut pals” throughout an look on Invoice Maher’s podcast, which, once more, ought to be interpreted as denial, however I’m seeing it as by some means textually linked to Mr. Darcy from Bridget Jones’s Diary insisting that he “likes Bridget very a lot, simply as she is.” Typically the best issues are probably the most romantic!

Whether or not Streep and Brief are courting or not, I do really feel it’s time to embrace Brief because the intercourse image that, at 73 years of age, he richly deserves to be. Simply check out this photograph, taken on his night time out with Streep in Santa Monica: 

I imply, have you ever ever seen a extra caught-in-headlights-yet-perfectly-tousled expression? This image is giving me robust f*ckboy vibes (in a not-bad means, for as soon as), however Brief has all the time come throughout as absolutely the reverse of a participant. He has spoken concerning the lack of his late spouse, Nancy Dolman, to most cancers in completely lovely phrases, telling Individuals in 2019: “Our marriage was a triumph, so it’s powerful. She died in 2010, however I nonetheless talk along with her on a regular basis. It’s ‘Hey Nan,’ ? How would she react to this choice or that, particularly relating to our three youngsters.” I’m weeping, however this class and heat additionally jogs my memory of the best way Streep has referred to her personal marriage. Let’s simply say that if I had been the Guardian Lure twins, I might be setting them up.

In the end, whether or not Brief and Streep are courting or simply pals who’re going to have this story forwarded to them by their PR individuals and chuckle their asses off about it through textual content (am I simply drafting fanfic now?), there’s one factor we will agree on: Streep’s face within the latter photograph with Brief appears mainly the identical because it did in that well-known shot of her on the New York subway, and it merely is not honest. (Meryl, observe Marina Abramovic’s instance and drop a skincare line—or at the least the skincare routine!)