By now you’ve undoubtedly seen pictures and/or heard stories regarding 55 year old actor Keanue Reeves dating 46 year old artist Alexandra Grant…are YOU intrigued? Are you caught up in the current “it’s about time celebrities started dating people in their own age bracket” discussion? Is this current hot-topic the result of too many instances of 65 year old actors (Hello, Dennis Quaid) becoming engaged to their 20-something girlfriends, or is something else going on here? There’s probably 100 ways to look at this, but here’s my angle on it: the Hollywood culture of perfection, along with our historically unrealistic expectations of physical beauty, is driving the narrative that this Reeves-Grant dating adventure is something unusual. We aren’t so much shocked by the idea that a well-regarded 50-something actor is dating a person close to his own age, as we are shocked that he’s NOT dating a dyed-haired Victoria’s Secret model. We don’t know how to process the sight of a well-known celebrity (especially a male celebrity) hand-in-hand with someone who looks like the rest of us. Ultimately, are we placing too much emphasis on “Hollywood-approved” physical features? You tell me 🙂

Image Courtesy of AFP/Scanpix

John Young