Anthony Mackie has been spotted on the streets of Notting Hill with his hands on a mystery woman’s bum – holding on tighter than a Marvel spandex suit clinging to Captain America’s glutes.
The actor seems to be enjoying his time as a visitor in the British capital – though it’s not a cheeky Nandos or kebab he’s got his mouth on, and he’s unlikely to be seeing many landmarks with his eyes closed.
The identity of the woman with whom Mackie was spotted in a passionate makeout on the street remains a mystery, but judging by their giggly, steamy back-and-forth, it’s safe to say they’ve met before.
She looks decidedly younger than 46-year-old Mackie, but given that the Dior saddle bag she’s wearing in the pictures is worth just over £3,000, it’s unlikely she’s in London for a low-paid grad scheme or pouring pints at a Spoons.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star is currently in London filming Marvel’s much-hyped Avengers: Doomsday, which raises the question: Is the mystery blonde part of the production? A new co-star?
Or just someone who happened to be in the vicinity and decided to give a whole new meaning to the concept of ‘grabbing a Mackies’ at the end of the night?
This comes seven years after Mackie’s divorce from Sheletta Chapital, with whom he shares four sons, in 2018.
Since then, his dating life has been quieter than Hawkeye’s solo box office numbers – making these new photos instant online currency. And the internet, as ever, has plenty of opinions.
On Reddit, Agpearlstudios wrote: ‘It’s giving the drunk kiss I shared with some rando outside my college bar.’
Dosgatitas was less nostalgic: ‘Ew I can’t unsee this!’
And Hannahspants simply begged for mercy: ‘Stop this is foul 😭’
One user, Leading_Put-, nailed it: ‘It’s not one of them cinematic kisses..’
Well, no, it’s not cinematic. And that’s a good thing, contrary to what Reddit would have you believe.
We live in a world where porn creates unrealistic images of what sexuality should look like, Instagram kisses are filtered, and intimacy has been algorithmically sanitised.
A good, real-life snog? It’s supposed to be clumsy, overzealous, and just a touch horrifying to witness. And for God’s sake, use your tongue! It’s clear that Mackie knows we didn’t survive the pandemic just for you to be stingy with your saliva.
Honestly, the online reaction says more about us than it does about Mackie, because we may be witnessing something tragic: The slow extinction of the sloppy public makeout.
There’s nothing like a few drinks, a bit of flirty craic in a sticky booth, and the sheer animal urge to shove your tongue down someone’s throat in a weirdly lit alleyway, smelly stairwell, or the guest bathroom of a friend-of-a-friend’s house party.
A messy snog is one of life’s great joys, and we mustn’t shame them. And look at that flirty little face Mackie is making at his mystery blonde!
Sure, it looks cringey to us in the harsh fluorescent lights of our cubicles or when we scroll past it on our way to stalk our exes on Instagram, but in the context of the moment, you can bet she felt like the summer air in London was imbued with magic specifically for her.
From the photos, this wasn’t some ‘look how hot we are’ staged moment. It was full immersion: giggles, murmurs, forehead presses, and the kind of body contact that ignores camera angles and focuses entirely on surface area.
Bottom line: If you’re not kissing your partner like Anthony Mackie, you’re doing it wrong. It’s time to drop the Instagram pout and rediscover the unphotogenic magic of the proper, unapologetic snog.
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