A new boyfriend for Reese Witherspoon
It's Gossip Time!
Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: an actress goes on a date, a pop star goes to a Zoom hearing, and Ben Affleck goes back to the Palisades.
In March of last year, Reese Witherspoon announced in a carefully worded Instagram statement that she and her husband, former CAA agent Jim Toth, were divorcing. Neither Witherspoon, 48, nor Toth, 54, have ever shared the reasons for their split, but it sounds like they had been going in different directions for some time. Toth left CAA in 2019 to join Quibi (oops), and then Witherspoon sold her company Hello Sunshine for $900 million in 2021. Toth has not done anything of note since Quibi imploded, and Witherspoon continues to work, work, work (currently on the fourth season of the most wonderfully insane show on television). According to People, Witherspoon and Toth finalized their divorce last August without owing each other anything — they had a prenup and maintained separate bank accounts throughout their almost 12-year marriage. They also signed a non-disclosure agreement. All that’s left is the memories (of Toth’s DUI and Witherspoon’s spirited declaration of her nationality in 2013).
Today, People reports that Witherspoon has a new man in her life. His name is Oliver Haarmann, and he is the 56-year-old German cofounder of Searchlight Capital. Witherspoon and Haarmann were spotted together a few times in New York this weekend — according to the Daily Mail, they arrived together by helicopter on Sunday (probably from the Hamptons, where Witherspoon attended an event for Cameron Diaz’s wine line). Then they went out to dinner at L’Artusi in the West Village on Monday night.
A source close to Witherspoon (her publicist) told People that Witherspoon and Haarmann are “friends.”
Witherspoon “is taking things slow when it comes to dating,” the source continued. “She enjoys it but doesn't want it to be a big focus. She’s busy with work and her son. These are her biggest priorities.”
Of course, of course. (Witherspoon shares Tennessee Toth, 11, with Toth and Ava Philippe, 24, and Deacon Phillippe, 20, with her first husband Ryan Phillippe.)
Much as I wanted to see a reunion between Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal (who’s still not married, btw), it doesn’t surprise me that Witherspoon is going the low-key-rich-guy route with her first public relationship post-divorce. Haarmann is uncontroversial — staid, even. The only remotely interesting thing about his profile is that he was previously married to the hedge funder Mala Gaonkar, who is now in a relationship with David Byrne. The tabloids can barely even find any photos of him — this is from the Sun Valley conference in 2009:
I guess he looks about the same now. And Witherspoon seems into it?
Cheers!
Speaking of driving under the influence, Justin Timberlake appeared at a hearing regarding his DWI case via Zoom today. He is currently in Belgium, on “the world tour” that so far has not been ruined by his decision to (ALLEGEDLY) drive drunk in the Hamptons in June. People got a photo of him looking “stoic” during the hearing:
Timberlake’s lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., initially put forth a motion to dismiss the case but withdrew it during the hearing. The judge also admonished Burke, who has previously represented troubled Hamptonites Matt Lauer and Lizzie Grubman, for making negative comments to the press after Timberlake was arraigned. Then the judge suspended Timberlake’s license in New York.
Burke, meanwhile, maintains that Timberlake was “not intoxicated” while driving away from the American Hotel in Sag Harbor during the wee hours of June 18. As a reminder, here is Timberlake’s mug shot from the incident:
There will reportedly be another hearing on August 9 and then possibly one more on September 13. Still plenty of time for Timberlake to get out of this, like always.
Meanwhile, Timberlake’s supportive wife Jessica Biel is doing, um, content, I guess, about periods.
STUFF BY HILARY DUFF: Hilary Duff says, “Life is full 👗🍹🧳☀️🫧🐠✈️👢👶🏼🍝🫶🏼”
Finally, I must leave you with the news that Ben Affleck bought a new $20 million house in the Palisades for himself on J.Lo’s birthday last week:
Affleck previously lived in a different $20 million house in the Palisades before buying a $60 million compound in Beverly Hills with J.Lo last year. According to a source who talked to People, the new house has a “sense of privacy and seclusion” and “could easily be transformed into a bachelor pad.”
Well, I hate that.
Thanks so much for opening this email. And thank you especially to paid subscribers! Your contributions keep this operation running, and I love you.
Further reading:
He's not a new man, he's a new mann
I’m just finding out that Reese is only 4 years older than Jake but in 2009, when I was 20, it felt like a May-December romance to me? She was 33 and he was 29. 🥴