Austin, Zoë, and a Canadian Cat

Austin Butler and Zoë Kravitz were in matching black and white last night in London for the UK premiere of Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing, opening on August 29. This casting combo is the selling feature, especially for the internet, which in some corners has been theorising that these two at some point hooked up or are still hooking up. 

I appreciate that they’re not leaning into this hard for the marketing. It’s not that they’re avoiding each other, because obviously their onscreen chemistry is important for this film, but they’re also not indulging social media. Right now there’s nothing to suggest that this ship is legit, although I’m sure once people see their love scene in the movie, all that noise will bubble up again. 

Matchmaking Austin and Zoë is the most obvious internet fantasy because they’re starring in a movie together. But it lacks imagination. I have two other suggestions for the Gossip Genie that would be just as good for gossip, if not better. More on that in a minute. Right now, let’s talk about the other star of Caught Stealing, arguably the scene stealer: Tonic the Cat. Tonic has been part of the promotional push for the movie. 

Tonic was not at the premiere but he’s actually getting a mini press tour of his own because he was in studio with us this week at ETALK for an interview, LOL. It wasn’t international travel for him because Tonic is Canadian! Probably the most famous cat in Canada? Another selling feature for Sarah to see this movie, she’s a cat person. 

My selling feature is Zoë and Austin bringing the horny and, well, Austin on his own because, like, I was already all-in after Elvis but you’ve seen him in Men’s Health, right? 

I can’t look at that too long, otherwise I’ll not be able to do much today which is what happened yesterday when his cover story was published. The profile is, as usual, a lot about how immersed he gets in his roles (we know all about the Elvis voice) and how Austin is trying to not be so precious about acting and having it dominating his life. Usually I find this tedious but I’ll tell you why it doesn’t bother me so much where he’s concerned – and this comes up in the interview: he is SO sweet and gentle. It’s what everyone says about him which makes his vibe so much different from all the other, um, young tortured actors going through the prescribed Serious Actor tunnel only to emerge, eventually, a lot sunnier. When they’re in it, it’s non-stop brooding. Austin, though, isn’t broody. I know this because I’ve interviewed him, a couple of times, and in person he’s not coming at you with any pretention. Nothing about Austin IRL suggests that he’s all up in his own head. In fact he’s almost eager to relate person-to-person and not as the subject or main character or in the context of his job. The impression that he leaves is pretty unanimous across the board with members of the press. 

I can’t clown on a dude who is this nice. And hot, haha. 

Now about the Gossip Genie…

Dakota Johnson or Sabrina Carpenter. Admit it, you’d be living for this.