Here’s a celebrity cheating scandal that hits all the triggers. An older married actor, who starred in a series about a couple’s affair, is seen in a lascivious embrace with a younger actress in photos taken by paparazzi… in Rome, no less! Rome, of course, is the setting for Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, which of course is when the term “paparazzi” was first coined. If this is a conspiracy it’s beyond cruel.
Dominic West and Catherine Fitzgerald have been married ten years. They have four children. This weekend, he was in Rome with Lily James. They’ve worked together in the past and spent the summer shooting The Pursuit of Love, adapted from the Nancy Mitford novel by Emily Mortimer, who is also directing. Dominic was not NOT in Rome for this project but he was in Rome to project his lust onto Lily. You can see the photos at the Daily Mail here - there’s no other way to interpret these shots, at least not to me. This man looks horny.
As for Lily, her manager was also with them so I’m not sure what that means but the last we checked on her love life, she was hanging out with Chris Evans. A few weeks after that it was reported that she and Matt Smith were trying to give their relationship another go but that it didn’t work out. Now she’s mixed up in Dominic’s drama. And let’s be clear – it’s HIS drama. Lily’s not the one who’s married. We also don’t know how he characterised his marriage to her. Did he tell her that his marriage was over? He hasn’t been wearing his ring. If it is over though, his wife certainly wasn’t aware.
After the pictures were published, Catherine’s friends came forward to say she was “shocked” and “devastated” so, clearly, she had no idea that he had given himself the all clear to help himself to a new romance.
But now the story has taken another turn. Dominic rushed home after he got exposed and today, he and Catherine posed outside their home, and kissed for the cameras! You can see those photos here. Then they made a statement – which, really, is probably HIS statement:
“Our marriage is strong and we’re very much still together. Thank you. Catherine & Dominic”
This is so old school – the nostalgia! Because you know what works better these days rather than inviting photographers and media to gawk outside your house? INSTAGRAM. Dominic West doesn’t appear to have a public Instagram (if he does I can’t find it) but there’s another use for it. Pro tip: keep an Instagram account handy so that when you cheat on your wife, you can deny it on the feed. Or is that more a stories post?
To me, on my Photo Assumption (the game of baseless conclusions), Catherine looks mortified. It’s compound mortification. It’s already enough that your husband is out here nuzzling another woman, and now you have to engage in some kind of forced display of unity to save his reputation when your heart has just been torn apart. That would be some f-cksh-t for anyone. But especially for someone from her social class. Or…maybe not?
Catherine is an aristocrat. Her father was the 29th Knight of Glin. She owns Glin Castle, the ancestral home of the Fitzgerald family for 800 years! A few years ago Catherine and Dominic invited Architectural Digest onto the estate for a tour. The video is below. They tell stories about some of the ancestors, including one dude who was such a player, he used to have multiple mistresses and would house them in various cottages on the property. Maybe Catherine and Dominic are living up to the spirit of whatever it was that went down in that castle over the centuries. Open marriage?
If that’s the case though, I’m not sure why her friends are going around telling media outlets how upset she is. You minimise a story by shrugging it off. You give more heat to a story by claiming outrage and then organising a photo shoot as “proof” of your commitment. These two might have a castle but they have zero crisis management.
