If you’ve ventured on Twitter today, you’ll have seen the outrage over the news that Leonardo DiCaprio might be dating 19-year-old French-Israeli model Eden Polani.
Shock horror, a famous and beautiful movie star is dating a beautiful young woman. Haven’t we seen this story a million times before?
If it’s entirely true, guess what? Eden is not being manipulated. She’s not being forced to date him. She knows of Leo’s history of leaving women once they turn 25.
It’s exciting… and it’s also transactional. He gets some beautiful arm candy for her to flaunt around town, and she gets the glitz and glamor of dating a movie star. We’re talking yachting vacations, access to VIP sections in bars, media attention and a revived modeling career.
Eden Polani’s profile has skyrocketed in the last 24 hours, regardless of whether or not she’s dating Leo DiCaprio, says Jana Hocking.
Leonardo DiCaprio, 48, and Eden Polani, 19, (seen together on January 31). While insiders say the movie star and the model are just friends, many people resented the idea that they could be together.
As someone who’s already been photographed with a famous person, I can tell you exactly how Eden is doing right now.
First of all, you’ll have journalists slipping into your DM offering interviews, you’ll have paparazzi asking if they can come take some photos of you, you’ll have old school friends dropping by ‘just to say hi’.
You’ll have brands offering you free clothes (for those inevitable Pap smears) and modeling agencies that once turned you down will be clamoring to put you in their books. At first, it’s a bit overwhelming, but then it gets pretty exciting.
I would never have experienced so much attention. People want to meet her!
And Eden is not stupid. She has posted cheeky tweets of herself in New York, where Leo happens to be at the moment, before deleting them. Because? Because she creates intrigue. She keeps the story going. She keeps her relevant. Whether he told her to delete them or she was joking with the media, she worked.
Because you see, today’s 19-year-olds are smart. They know what creates good engagement on their social pages, and thanks to celebrity mentors like Kim Kardashian, they know how to turn those 15 minutes of fame into a lifetime career.
Eden Polani (pictured) is certainly smart enough to turn her 15 minutes into so much more, writes Jana Hocking.
Just ask Gisele Bündchen, who was 18 when she first dated Leo. She was a relatively unknown model who, thanks to the exposure, landed a contract with Victoria’s Secret, several Vogue covers, and became one of the highest-paid models in the world.
Would she have arrived alone? Maybe eventually. Did dating Leo take her career to a whole new level at a much faster pace? Absolutely.
And let’s not underestimate the benefits of dating an older man. I have talked about it very fondly in the past and the benefits are endless. They seem to look better with age, have a steady income, a better idea of who they are, and absolutely adore you.
Before we all get on our high horses, pointing out that men only seem to want younger women these days, maybe let’s take a look at the female megastars who have dated younger men, because it’s not that rare…
There isn’t much outrage when older women date younger men, says Jana Hocking (pictured)
Last year, Olivia Wilde, 37, was dating Harry Styles, 26. Sure we were intrigued, but would you say outraged? No.
Madonna’s most recent boyfriend was a spring chicken at just 23 years old. He is 64 years old. Did that blew up Twitter? No.
Sandra Bullock was 37 when she dated Ryan Gosling, then 21. He has even referred to her as one of her greatest loves. Don’t you remember that? Yeah, I hardly did either.
Even pop star Fergie admitted in an old interview with Cosmopolitan magazine that she dated Justin Timberlake for a brief time when she was 23 and he was only 16. Did that ever make the cover? Once again… no.
Let’s be honest, even if Leo and Eden ARE dating, it’s not going to last, so why not let it play out?
Eden, date that fabulous Hollywood starlet, grace those red carpets, enjoy that yachting vacation, and take a trip to the bank. Because as I’m sitting here in my one-bedroom apartment eating a supermarket sandwich, I’m sure I wouldn’t turn it down. If only for a few months of absolute glamour.