Brandon Davis? I haven't heard that name in years...
It's Gossip Time!
Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: a mid-aughts terror returns to Hollywood, an actor makes a 19-year-old friend, and Hilary Duff reveals a surprising goal.
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, which means certain celebrities are popping up to let everyone know they, too, have love in their lives. The latest is former Pretty Little Liars star Ashley Benson, who went public with a new boyfriend this week. His name? Brandon Davis.
If that sounds oddly familiar to you, you probably spent your formative middle school years like I did, watching The Soup with Joel McHale on E!. Davis, 44, is a grandson of the late oil-tycoon-turned-Hollywood-mogul Marvin Davis, and he was a regular character in the tabloid drama of the mid-aughts. He is most famous for calling Lindsay Lohan a “firecrotch” to TMZ reporters while club-hopping with Paris Hilton in 2006. He also dated Mischa Barton and may or may not have hooked up with Britney Spears in the wake of her divorce from Kevin Federline. He has seemingly never had a job, and he is questionably rich, as his family has been suing each other over Marvin’s $6 billion fortune since he died in 2004. Brandon has been quiet in recent years — save for a DUI in 2015 — but apparently he never really left Hollywood.
People broke the news of Benson and Davis’s relationship this week, after the two were spotted on a double date with Emma Roberts and her newish actor boyfriend Cody John. A source told the tabloid that Benson, 33, and Davis “have a lot of mutual friends and are both super fun and very social people.” I’m sure!
Benson was last linked to G-Eazy, so this may or may not be a step-up.
Meanwhile, Benson’s friend and Spring Breakers co-star Vanessa Hudgens got engaged to a much nicer guy this week: Pittsburgh Pirates player Cole Tucker.
Hudgens’s ex-boyfriend Austin Butler is still dating Kaia Gerber. Do you think he’ll let her walk the red carpet with him at the Oscars? My guess is… no. And here’s my excuse to show you this photo of Hudgens meeting Gerber in 2007:
One man who remains single during this season of love: Leo DiCaprio. Poor Victoria Lamas is long gone, and it seems DiCaprio, 48, has not yet landed on a specific 20-year-old to date for the next two-to-three years. The tabloids suggested that he was dating a 19-year-old model named Eden Polani this week, after the two were photographed sitting together at Ebony Riley’s album release party, but a source close to DiCaprio (his publicist) strenuously denied the claim to People.
“Leo and Eden just so happened to have been seated next to each other at the party, and were hanging in the same group,” this source said. “Just because Leo might be talking to or sitting with a girl doesn’t mean he’s dating her.”
Also single: Tom Brady.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, meanwhile, are so married they’re snapping at each other on live television. If you watched the Grammys, or even if you didn’t, you probably saw the clip of J.Lo chastising her new husband for looking miserable at the event:
The Daily Mail asked a lip reader to reveal what, exactly, Mrs. Affleck was saying, and this person came up with, “Stop. Look more friendly. Look motivated.”
It’s hard for me to imagine a real person saying those sentences, but J.Lo is not like the rest of us. I hope we can all find a way to Look Motivated when we’re out and about this weekend.
STUFF BY HILARY DUFF: Hilary Duff was in the literal New Yorker this week and expressed a desire to star in a Broadway show. I believe she can do it.
Finally, I’ll leave you with this photo of Julia Stiles, Quinta Brunson, and Lindsay Lohan hanging out at the Christian Siriano show at New York Fashion Week yesterday:
Take that, Brandon.
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Lol
Glad to see his coke bloat has improved!