The Gilded Age star Christine Baranski, 73, and popstar King Princess, 26, have sparked rumours they are dating after some red carpet hand-holding.
Earlier this year King Princess – real name Mikaela Straus – and the Mamma Mia! star held hands at the Picture Of Dorian Gray’s opening night, leading to fans to wonder if they could be an item.
Fast forward five months and this week at the gala re-opening night of Mamma Mia on Broadway the two women struck a similar pose, hand in hand, as they arrived at the event.
Then King Princess shared a picture of the two holding hands at the NYC event on social media, and simply said: ‘#loveislove.’
Fans were loving the image and sentiment – even if some aren’t sure whether the relationship is genuine or a joke. (King Princess has been known to have a good online sense of humour.)
‘My fave thing about this is idk if this is real or not,’ commented dspxna on Instagram, while michielelovesart replied: ‘SAME! and if it is, HECK YES!’
Then star of Hacks Hannah Einbinder commented on the post writing, ‘Ava and Deborah vibes,’ signalling the relationship – like in the US show – may be more of a mentor and mentee relationship, albeit with romantic tensions.
Redditors weren’t so quick to buy into King Princess’s post.
‘KP is a longstanding s**tposter, I don’t think this is serious,’ said greensandgrains, while therealrowanatkinson (likely not the real one) said: ‘This reads like a joke to me. I’d love it if Christine was in a lesbian relationship but I think they’re simply being silly.’
garden_gate then said: ‘This is peak Young millennial/old Gen Z queer humor. No queer person under the age of 40 would use “love is love” unironically.’
King Princess is a lesbian, and often explores gender and sexuality in her music, while Christine was married to actor Matthew Cowles from 1983 until his death in 2014.
The pair formed a deep friendship on season two of Nine Perfect Strangers, with singer-songwriter King Princess making her acting debut as Tina, working alongside the likes of Nicole Kidman.
‘Let’s give them something to talk about,’ Christine previously joked of their kinship while talking to Interview Magazine.
She explained their relationship: ‘We sat at the bar, ordered our martinis, and suddenly we’re talking about our grandmothers who deeply affected and influenced our lives. I think that’s where we profoundly bonded.’
Christine went on to say: ‘We have our martinis and steak frites. And we’re friends, which is so delightful. I went into this thinking there are so many wonderful aspects to this job… then possibly the greatest gift, developing a friendship with this wildly talented young woman who’s so opinionated, deeply funny and witty. We’ve curiously bonded and wanted to remain friends. That’s a great gift.’
To that King Princess joked: ‘Well, be careful, Christine, because people will talk.’
It’s likely then, that this is a bit of a wind-up. But if it did ever happen it’s nice to know their fans are supportive…
This comes after Christine spoke out against Jeff Bezos’ celebrity space trip, which included Katy Perry, his now-wife Lauren Sanchez, broadcaster Gayle King, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
Speaking on a panel about the displays of wealth on her HBO series The Gilded Age at ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas, on August 11, she said: ‘And the grotesque displays of wealth? Sending women into a spaceship for what? So they can do their makeup? What the f***?’
Speaking in her character Agnes van Rhijn’s voice, she said: ‘Don’t get me started. I’m going to sound like Agnes.’
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