Jan
The actor/director and the ‘One Direction’ singer — and star of her new movie — can hold hands at a friend’s wedding but must still don masks.Lots can be said about Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde possibly being the hot new couple of 2021, including what a bummer it could be for Jason Sudeikis, Wilde’s former longtime partner and father of her two children.
People also are discussing Styles, 26, and Wilde, 36, striking up a romantic relationship while she was his boss, directing him this fall in the psychological horror film “Don’t Worry Darling.” Others are focusing on the One Direction singer’s previous romances, which includes with Taylor Swift, or his Twitter feud with right wing commentator Candace Owens, who blasted him for his sexually ambiguous fashion choices for his recent cover spread in Vogue.
It’s also notable that Styles and Wilde made their reported debut as a couple in circumstances that are becoming all too common during the COVID-19 global pandemic. They attended a wedding at the famed San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, Santa Barbara County. The festivities, however, appeared scaled back because of health restrictions, and the couple’s party attire was accessorized with masks.
Harry Styles was spotted holding hands with Olivia Wilde at his manager’s wedding. 💕 https://t.co/joAU71HjyM
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 4, 2021
Page Six published photos of the masked duo holding hands while attending the outdoor ceremony. A source told People that Styles and Wilde have “dated for a few weeks.” The source said, “They were affectionate around their friends, held hands and looked very happy.”
The wedding took place as Santa Barbara County is locked down under the state’s regional stay-at-home order, issued Dec. 6, which permits outdoor weddings and religious and cultural ceremonies at outdoors, but also requires mask-wearing and social distancing between people from different households.
It’s not clear whether Styles and Wilde enjoyed a romantic weekend at San Ysidro Ranch as part of a destination wedding. The ranch would seem to be an ideal location, both for a wedding and for a romantic getaway, especially for a celebrity couple looking for privacy. Set on 500 secluded acres, “between mountains and ocean,” San Ysidro Ranch was the honeymoon destination for President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline. It also was the wedding spot for Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh in 1940, with other famous guests including Audrey Hepburn and Winston Churchill.
nder the stay-at-home order, Santa Barbara County hotels must be closed to in-state guests unless they are “essential workers.” That would seem to include San Ysidro Ranch; a rep for the hotel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hotels can be open for “out-of-state” guests, but only as long as they stay for the minimum time period required for quarantine, the order says.
The wedding took place after Santa Barbara County Public Health officials on Thursday issued a statement saying it’s not safe for people to gather with anyone outside their households because of COVID-19 cases in the region being at record high levels.
Santa Barbara County Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said there were more than 1,200 active cases in the community, twice the summer peak, which means that COVID-19 is actively spreading across the county.
“Not only is gathering unsafe, but we risk losing the extremely limited hospital beds we have left and exhausting the health care staff that has tirelessly cared for our community,” Do-Reynoso said.
On its website, Visit Santa Barbara, the region’s tourism bureau, warned visitors that “leisure travel” to the county and the rest of Southern California is restricted.
“If you fall within the category of ‘essential traveler,’ including medical first responders, workers in essential sectors, those self-isolating/quarantining, or caring for vulnerable people, you are allowed to travel to the Santa Barbara South Coast and stay in open hotels and other lodging properties,” the Visit Santa Barbara website said.
“If you are not an essential traveler, you are NOT permitted to visit the Santa Barbara South Coast until the most recent regional stay at home order has been lifted,” the website said.
In photos published by Page Six, Wilde is seen wearing a floor-length floral gown as she holds hands with Styles, who’s in an all-black fitted suit paired with a white button-up shirt. The two were later seen photographed at his Los Angeles home with luggage in tow.
Their outing comes weeks after People and other outlets reported that Wilde and Sudeikis had split in early 2020 after nine years together. They share a son, Otis, 6, and a daughter, Daisy, 4. While Sudeikis proposed in 2012, he and Wilde never married. Wilde and Styles reportedly met and spent time together while filming “Don’t Worry Darling” around Los Angeles.
EXCLUSIVE: Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde are thought to be DATING after ‘growing close’ on the set of their new movie https://t.co/tLpbiT6eQA
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) January 4, 2021
For Styles’ cover story for Vogue’s December issue, Wilde explained why she was so excited for him to star in her “incredibly stylistic” movie, which is set in the 1950s. She described her film as “very heightened and opulent, and I’m really grateful that he is so enthusiastic about that element of the process.”
“To me, he’s very modern, and I hope that this brand of confidence as a male that Harry has — truly devoid of any traces of toxic masculinity — is indicative of his generation and therefore the future of the world,” Wilde continued. “It’s pretty powerful and kind of extraordinary to see someone in his position redefining what it can mean to be a man with confidence.”
