Weren’t we being bread-crumbed to this point all week? I think “bread-crumbing” means something else entirely in the Tinder age but I’m talking about gossip rollout and how, for the last few days, the sourcing and the leaks have brought us to this point: Bradley Cooper and Irina Shayk are no more.
It started with Page Six…not just a few days ago but in October, when they reported that Bradley and Irina looked miserable while out for dinner together. Earlier this week, Page Six once again broke the news that a split might be imminent. There followed pile-on from other entertainment outlets, like E! and Us Weekly, playing catchup on the situation although they were all still saying that while things weren’t great between Coop and Irina, they were still officially together.
Yesterday, PEOPLE came in with the definitive word that Coop and Irina have indeed ended their four year relationship. “PEOPLE confirms” is how they put it, the strongest language we’ve seen so far, which to me reads like even though they’re saying that Bradley and Irina’s reps aren’t commenting, they probably got it directly from them.
Still. This can’t be a surprise. Back in the fall, we were all looking out for it anyway. Not then, because Oscars, and you never let another narrative distract from the Oscars. The formula, usually, is post-Oscars, a few weeks of breathing room. In Bradley’s case breathing room also meant clear of Avengers: Endgame. And since Bradley isn’t scheduled to be in our faces to promote anything for quite some time, this story can run its course and will be well over by the time he has to be back in the public eye. If there is a strategy to it then (isn’t there always?), we’re now seeing its start-to-finish execution.
I was trying to think of a real world application to this situation. Like the delay of personal decisions, having to stay together for appearances. Let’s say there’s a big family event coming up, a happy occasion, grandma’s 75th birthday. Do you wait to tell people, still show up and keep up the façade, until after all that has passed so that it doesn’t hijack everything and everyone else? Or a work function, event, conference, etc where you don’t want it to be awkward so you just go together anyway and pretend so people don’t ask questions? That’s the closest example I could get to but if you have an anecdote, please share.
As for why, where Bradley and Irina are concerned…well… they weren’t happy. Why weren’t they happy? I’m sure there are reasons but please, PLEASE know that Lady Gaga isn’t one of them, Jesus Christ. As for the lazy angle out there that Irina wants to go out and party and Bradley’s more low-key – well, that certainly benefits him. He’s not just an actor anymore, you know. He’s a serious filmmaker who was nominated for lots of Oscars his first time out. Maybe we should tweak that angle?
He IS a serious filmmaker now. Is he an obsessive filmmaker? An aspiring “auteur”? Auteur, in film, is synonymous with “genius”. “Genius” in real life is often synonymous with “man only”. Sometimes – a lot of the time – geniuses can be … difficult? Wait, no. That’s a word reserved for women. But for some reason Ben Affleck keeps coming to mind. Also a complicated actor-director. Not easy men to love and live with.
Attached - Bradley Cooper dropping his daughter off at a friend's house yesterday and Irina Shayk getting her nails done and then heading to LAX.
