CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the photos on a mobile device
Keanu Reeves stepped out Monday night, holding hands with artist Alexandra Grant to walk the red carpet at a high-profile, high-society event in Los Angeles, People and other outlets reported.
While Reeves’ representatives wouldn’t officially confirm a romance, this PDA-filled appearance by the “John Wick” star and Grant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Art + Film Gala can’t be taken as anything other than a signal to the world that Hollywood’s coolest A-lister and male heartthrob is seriously dating someone.
Rather than express disappointment, jealousy or heartbreak, Reeves’ fans on social media enthusiastically celebrated. There were a number of reasons that people were happy to see Reeves and Grant together and to believe that she’s a perfect match for an actor who may be rich and globally famous, but who always comes across as friendly, humble and genuinely decent.
Of course, the initial reason people were celebrating: Grant is what many were calling “age-appropriate.”
She’s 46, while Reeves is 55. In an era when the public is used to seeing aging male celebrities — notably Dennis Quaid, Sean Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio — date or marry much younger women, Reeves is dating a woman who is just nine years younger.
People found that fact refreshing and were moved to tweet:
of course Keanu has an age-appropriate girlfriend. he is a Good Man https://t.co/Rnr3IdPzfG
— britt hayes (@britthates) November 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/jakewoolf/status/1191521978953412609
In that same vein, Grant doesn’t appear to be trying to downplay the fact that she’s in her 40s, proudly displaying a head of silver hair to go with her midnight blue gown with a deep V-neck.
And here’s another thing about Grant’s gala-night ensemble that shows she’s probably as unfussy as Reeves always appears to be: She was wearing silver flats, not the foot-crunching, balance-challenging stiletto heels that female celebrities famously complain about. Grant looks like she cares most about being comfortable in her own skin.
It was widely noted that Reeves’ appearance with Grant marks the first time in nearly 20 years that the famously private actor has gone public with anything about his romantic life.
Reeves’ fans remember that his last public relationship, with Jennifer Syme, ended in heartbreak after their daughter, Ava, was stillborn eight months into Syme’s pregnancy. While Reeves and Syme stayed friends, tragedy struck again two years later when Syme died in a car accident in 2001.
So, people were happy to see that Reeves has found someone, especially someone with whom he has a long history — as friends, as artistic collaborators and possibly as romantic partners. Yes, it’s likely that Reeves and Grant have been dating for a while, but only went public with their affection for each other on Monday night.
Keanu Reeves’ happiness is the only thing everyone can agree upon
— ali segel (@OnlineAlison) November 5, 2019
As Los Angeles Magazine reported in 2018, Reeves and Grant worked together on his 2011 adult picture book, “Ode to Happiness.” The tongue-in-cheek book, described as a “reminder not to take oneself too seriously,” featured words by Reeves and illustrations by Grant.
They teamed up again in 2016 for another book, “Shadows.” The pair also founded X Artists’ Books, a publishing house for “beautiful, socially conscious” art and literary books, which they established in 2017, according to Los Angeles Magazine.
About their collaboration on books and the publishing house, Grant told the magazine: “Some people are kind of dreamers who have a lot of ideas but don’t like to get things done. I think we both like to have the idea and get it into the world.”
According to Grant’s website, she spent significant portions of her childhood and adolescence living in Mexico, France and Spain, an international upbringing that fueled her artistic interest in how language and images guide the way “we think and exchange ideas.”
Grant has a bachelor’s in art history and studio art from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and earned her master’s in fine arts from San Francisco’s acclaimed California College of Arts and Crafts. Her work has been exhibited internationally and she founded the grantLOVE project, which raises money to benefit nonprofit organizations linked to the arts.
As People noted, it’s been quite a year for Reeves, with his resurgence as a film star with roles in the hit films “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum” and “Toy Story 4” and his particularly delightful, self-mocking cameo in the Netflix rom-com “Always Be My Maybe.”
Another big distinction for Reeves this year is that he was named the internet’s boyfriend. This ephemeral honor left him touched and amused. At the premiere for “Toy Story 4,” he said he wasn’t sure what it meant, according to People.
“I’ve been what?” he said. But he went with it, saying, “That’s, uh, that’s wacky. Well, the positivity’s great.”
