Andrew Garfield and a "professional witch"
It's Gossip Time!
Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: an actor dates a witch, two other actors announce their divorce, and the Madden brothers fight over baby bird names.
The 40-year-old British actor Andrew Garfield has had an interesting celebrity relationship trajectory. He’s never dated Taylor Swift, even though it seems like he should have. He had one long, serious relationship with his Spider-Man co-star Emma Stone, which was mostly spent educating the paparazzi about charitable organizations. Then he had a fling with Rita Ora (sure), tried the random model thing (Alyssa Miller; Olivia Brower), and now…he’s dating a witch.
Garfield went public with Dr. Kate Tomas, a self-described “professional witch,” on a paparazzi-friendly double date with Phoebe Bridgers and Bo Burnham this week. They all went to Zinque in Malibu, and Garfield and Tomas (age unknown) were photographed hanging all over each other outside the restaurant. Fun!
According to her personal website, Tomas is sort of an upmarket spiritual advisor: She charges $1,500 for a 45-minute psychic reading and has testimonials from Megan Mullally and Lena Dunham. “I work with people to show them how to master the energy of their own body, in doing so protecting them from the energy of others; giving them the reigns to the chariot of their own life; and showing how to not only take more control over their experience this lifetime, but also how to actively bring into form, to manifest, that which their True Will desires and therefore that which ultimately benefits the collective,” Tomas explains on her website.
Like Garfield, she is British, and she has a doctorate in theology from Oxford. It’s possible Tomas and Garfield met through friends in England (?), or perhaps Bridgers introduced them. (Bridgers has also described herself as a witch, though I don’t think she charges anyone to read tarot cards.)
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Personally, I love this kind of celebrity relationship. It’s a good reminder that no matter how they appear, actors are not normal people. Let’s hope marriage is in the cards — I’d love to read about whatever ceremony these two think up.
In less positive relationship news, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher announced today that they are in the midst of a divorce. “After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down. In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage,” they wrote in a statement shared on both of their Instagram stories. “We have always prioritized our privacy, and have been quietly working through this change,” they added. “We forever share in our devotion and love for our children. We sincerely appreciate your respecting our family’s wish for privacy.”
The signs, perhaps, were there: Fisher, 48, attended the Vanity Fair Oscars party by herself this year. And Cohen, 52, is facing accusations of being an “asshole” (imagine!) by Rebel Wilson in her new memoir, Rebel Rising. Wilson, 44, claims Cohen made her feel “humiliated and degraded as a person” on the set of The Brothers Grimsby in 2016 when he asked her to “stick a finger up his butt” while filming. Aah! Sounds like Fisher got out and does not want to be associated with this news cycle (and whatever comes next).
STUFF BY HILARY DUFF: It is time to speculate on what Hilary Duff will name her fourth baby (sex unknown). For reference, she already has a Luca Cruz, a Banks Violet, and a Mae James. Please put your guesses in the comments!
Finally, I’ll leave you with a celebrity baby name conundrum.
A few weeks ago, Cameron Diaz and her husband, Benji Madden, announced the birth of their son, Cardinal Madden. Cute? Sure! But Benji’s twin brother Joel Madden already has a son with his wife, Nicole Richie, and his name is Sparrow Madden. Entertainment Tonight asked Joel about this stunning coincidence on the red carpet of Richie’s new movie premiere this week, and he said the name “was a surprise to all of us. We’re all very happy though.”
Is it okay to surprise your twin brother with a bird-themed baby name? Let me know what you think.
Thanks so much for opening this email. And thank you especially to paid subscribers! Your contributions keep this operation running, and I love you. If you haven’t subscribed yet and would like to, you can do so in the box above. As always, feel free to share your thoughts and theories in the comments or by replying directly.
hilary is doing the rarely seen name-genre sibling split. i don't even think *she* knows what she's doing. so her current progression is two-syllable Italian trendy name (luca), one-syllable plural noun that makes little sense as a name (banks), and one-syllable generic/classic middle-name filler name (mae). there's no pattern here but absolute CHAOS!
i don't think hilary will go trendy or generic/classic again, and as much as i would love it if she named her next child bakeries christine, she is not that crazy. i'm kind of thinking the last baby-name frontier for hilary comes down to one of three flavors: hipster, biblical, or irish name that's hard to spell and pronounce. so, for a girl, that would names like: ramona, salome, niamh. for a boy: spruce, asa, eoin.
but there's another layer here, of perhaps more significant nomenclatural meaning beyond name-genre style and mood: name meaning. obviously, this child will be duff's youngest... her littlest :). i wouldn't put it past hilary to name her baby something meaning "little" or "small" or "tiny." therefore, i think hilary will look for a name hewing to that meaning and then choose whichever name sounds the coolest from the genres i have identified above.
here's a calculation i just made up: (genre) x meaning^2 = hilary duff baby name.
i plugged that formula into my name generator (brain) and here is the name it gave me: OISIN. oisin, pronounced "o'sheen," is an irish name meaning "little deer." according to the wikipedia preview that shows up when you google it, oisin was "regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland." sounds about right. i believe it could be used beautifully — and duffily — for either gender.
I want to see a version of that outside-the-restaurant photo overlaid with everyone’s heights