What superpower does Reese Witherspoon have to specifically choose this past weekend to announce her divorce, just as so much other gossip was brewing and about to go lightspeed? Gwyneth Paltrow, Harry Styles, Selena Gomez, and Angelina were all lined up to take the heat off Reese. And by superpower, I mean does her publicist have an inside track with paps and tabloids?
Anyway, about Angelina – she was seen leaving Nobu in Malibu alongside billionaire environmentalist David Mayer de Rothschild on Thursday, Page Six says they spent three hours there and the suggestion, not surprisingly, is that they may be dating. We might have to pump the brakes on that though because PEOPLE followed up with some clarification. It was a lunch meeting and Angelina and David were apparently not alone. They were among a small group of people and it seemed like a business gathering. They also did not leave together.
As for David and his background, he attended an event in 2017 with actress Karina Leyko. In August 2020, the New York Times featured them in their Venice Beach home and Karina was referred to as his “wife”. Since then there’s been no update on their relationship, probably because old money billionaires, and Rothschild is definitely old money, keep their sh-t locked down, the way billionaires used to roll. Old money billionaires are secretive AF. unlike the new breed of them popping off these days.
And there are many other non-romantic reasons Angelina might be building these kinds of relationships. She announced a few months ago that she would no longer be working with the UNHCR but would continue working on her causes and building awareness for refugee issues, the environment, and the impact of political conflict on women in children in other capacities. Taking a meeting with David, then, is an opportunity most activists would welcome.
But I do get the gossip potential here, of course I do. Angelina moving on from her past with a super rich, super hot, super tall billionaire philanthropist is a great story. It’s a GREAT gossip story. And if there’s no mess that comes along with it, I want it to be true too. But given that a source is telling PEOPLE today that it’s strictly business, my guess is that she’s the one pouring water on it. At least for now. And one of the reasons, if recent history is anything to go by, is because the ex always seems to come with some f-cksh-t whenever she starts living.