Dakota Johnson and Machine Gun Kelly Just Gave Their Rumor Era Another Night Out
A month after their first public hang, the pair slipped into a Hollywood speakeasy together—and Dakota has already warned everyone that musicians are “tricky motherf--kers.”
Hollywood romance rumors usually begin with a dinner, a blurry sidewalk photo and one person suddenly discovering the concept of “just friends.” Dakota Johnson and Machine Gun Kelly have now moved on to the next stage: repeated public appearances with the kind of casual choreography that makes the internet sit up straighter.
The pair were seen arriving together at Say Yes, a speakeasy and cocktail lounge in Hollywood on Oct. 14, according to footage obtained by DeuxMoi and reported by E! News. Johnson walked behind Kelly as they entered, while the rapper—whose real name is Colson Baker—greeted a passerby and appeared to be in good spirits.
Nothing about the outing screamed red-carpet hard launch. That is precisely why people are talking about it. Johnson wore a dark leather jacket over a white cropped tank and pants, with her sleek signature hair doing what it always does: looking expensive while pretending none of this is a big deal. Kelly went full low-profile celebrity, dressed in black with his hood pulled over his head.
It was not exactly an invisibility cloak. It was more “I would like privacy, but I am also entering a Hollywood cocktail lounge with Dakota Johnson.”
The soft launch has entered its second act
This was not the first time Johnson and Kelly have been spotted together. On Sept. 12, the Bigger Splash actress and the “Bad Things” artist went out in New York City, just weeks after Johnson’s breakup from musician Role Model was confirmed. The appearance immediately landed in the category of “interesting timing,” because celebrity romance watchers are nothing if not calendar literate.
Then came Milan. Johnson was seen watching Kelly walk the runway at Vogue World 2026 on Sept. 22, adding another public sighting to a connection that had previously been easy to dismiss as one friendly night out. The two had also crossed paths at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s July wedding, a guest list so starry that merely being in the same room proves absolutely nothing—but does provide excellent future gossip infrastructure.
Now there have been multiple hangouts over the course of a month, in two cities, with the latest one happening in Johnson’s Los Angeles orbit. Fans think the pattern looks romantic. Neither Johnson nor Kelly has addressed the speculation, which leaves the public to do what it does best: turn a cocktail-lounge entrance into a serialized drama.
Of course, Dakota has thoughts about musicians
The timing is especially delicious because Johnson has already offered a public warning label for the musician species. In a Sept. 18 interview with Vogue, the Materialists actress was told that she “knows a lot of musicians.”
“They like me,” she replied. “I don’t know what to say.”
When the interviewer followed up with, “What’s not to like?,” Johnson laughed and answered: “A lot! A lot. Tricky motherf–kers.”
That comment came after Johnson’s eight-year relationship with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin ended in 2025, and shortly after her breakup from Role Model. So yes, there is a certain self-aware comedy to the internet now watching her appear with another musician while she has publicly described musicians as, essentially, charming little hazards.
But Johnson has never suggested that her dating history is a neatly curated brand strategy. Her relationship with Martin was long and highly scrutinized, while her newer outings with Kelly have arrived with no announcement, no couple selfie and no caption designed to make the tabloids combust. For now, the vibe is less “meet my boyfriend” and more “we happened to enter the same building at the same time,” repeated until the distinction starts to feel extremely theoretical.
MGK is no stranger to a headline-making romantic orbit
Kelly also brings his own mythology to the situation. The “Lonely Road” artist has spent years existing at the intersection of music, fashion and celebrity relationship news, so a low-key entrance beside Johnson was never likely to remain low-key for long.
His current public image is built for this exact kind of sighting: a little rock star, a little runway regular, a little deliberately elusive. The hood, the black clothes, the cheerful greeting to a passerby—every detail feels like it belongs to a celebrity trying to be casual while operating in a world where casual is content.
Johnson, by contrast, has a cooler, drier approach to public attention. She has previously pushed back on the culture of constant romantic speculation. E! News notes that she once told people speculating about her relationships to “get a life,” which makes this latest round of interest feel like the universe testing her patience with a particularly well-dressed pop quiz.
There is also the fact that Johnson and Kelly are not emerging from nowhere. They have crossed paths in a dense celebrity social circle, and their connection has unfolded through public events and outings rather than one explosive declaration. That makes the story less like a surprise engagement announcement and more like a slow-burn subplot: a few sightings, one fashion week appearance, a lounge entrance, and a suspicious amount of collective attention.
The internet loves a musician pattern
Part of the fascination is the familiar celebrity formula: actor meets musician, musician meets actor, everyone insists nothing is happening, and the public starts assembling a relationship narrative from outerwear.
Johnson has long been linked to musicians, including Martin and Role Model. Kelly’s own public romantic history has also kept him firmly inside the celebrity relationship conversation. Put those two trajectories together and the cultural math becomes irresistible, even if the people involved have not supplied a conclusion.
Still, the most interesting detail may be how little the pair appears to be forcing. There is no dramatic PDA in the account of the Los Angeles outing, no social-media announcement and no quote from either star turning the speculation into a formal storyline. Just Johnson in a leather jacket, Kelly in a hood, and another night where they chose to arrive at the same place.
That is enough to keep the rumor machine humming. It is also very on-brand for the current celebrity dating landscape, where the soft launch is no longer one strategically cropped hand in an Instagram carousel. Sometimes it is simply walking ten feet behind someone into a speakeasy and letting the internet write the rest.
Selena Gomez Pulled Off the Ultimate Gala Double Act: Cherry-Red Prada, Then Champagne Fringe
Hosting her fourth Rare Impact Fund Benefit, Gomez made a very convincing case for changing twice — especially when both dresses are custom Prada and your husband is watching from the front row.
Selena Gomez arrived at her Rare Impact Fund Benefit looking like the human embodiment of a perfectly timed entrance: cherry-red satin, matching crimson pumps, diamonds catching the light and not a single unnecessary detail in sight. Then, because one major Prada moment is apparently not enough for a woman hosting her own gala, she changed.
By the time Gomez took the podium at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, the red look had given way to a shimmering champagne column gown embroidered with multicolor crystals and sequins, finished with swinging silver fringe. The first dress said polished power move. The second said: yes, the evening is still going, and yes, the lighting is about to get even better.
It was a particularly sleek fashion chapter for Gomez, who hosted the fourth annual benefit for the Rare Impact Fund, the youth mental health foundation connected to her Rare Beauty brand. Her husband, Benny Blanco, was in attendance and helped raise funds during the event, giving the night its own small celebrity-couple subplot without turning the gala into a relationship-content factory.
The red dress arrived first, and it came fully accessorized
Gomez’s opening look was a custom Prada strapless satin sheath in a deep cherry red, shaped with a curved neckline and draped peplum before giving way to all-over beading. Stylist Erin Walsh paired it with matching Prada pumps and Bucherer diamonds, including curved stud earrings priced at $15,600 and set with more than 80 baguette- and brilliant-cut diamonds each.
Her marquise engagement ring from Blanco also made the cut, naturally. Gomez wore diamond rings on both hands, while her hair stayed soft and unfussy: center-parted, gently slicked at the front and falling in waves down her back. The styling had the precise effect gala dressing is always chasing — extravagant enough to register from across a ballroom, relaxed enough not to look like the outfit was wearing her.
Makeup artist Hung Vanngo kept the palette in the same expensive-looking neighborhood with a smoky eye and glossy nude lip. Her nails, painted in Olive & June’s deep Bordeaux jelly red, quietly echoed the dress without screaming for attention. This was not a “look at my manicure” manicure. It was a supporting character with excellent instincts.
Then came the champagne sequel
Inside the event, Gomez changed into the second custom Prada design: a champagne-colored column gown that glittered with multicolor crystals and sequins and moved with silver fringe at the hem. The dress was more liquid than structured, more old-Hollywood fantasy than red-carpet armor. Coordinating sandals kept the silhouette clean, while Bucherer’s shoulder-grazing Inner Fire earrings brought 12.22 carats of diamonds into the conversation.
The earrings mirrored the fringe, which is exactly the kind of styling detail that makes a two-dress evening feel intentional rather than merely well-funded. The red look established the mood; the champagne look loosened it up and let the room move with her. If the first entrance was a statement, the second was the encore.
Prada and Gomez already have a useful little fashion history together. The Italian house created the Cinderella-inspired baby-blue gown she wore to the 2025 Golden Globes, as well as the cotton-candy pink satin minidress for a Rare Beauty launch party in April. The partnership has settled into a recognizable lane: romantic, polished, slightly sugary, but with enough sharp tailoring and high-wattage jewelry to keep it from drifting into princess-costume territory.
A glamorous night with a heavier center
The gala was not only a dress-change delivery system, though the dresses certainly understood the assignment. Comedian Sean Hayes emceed the evening, while Leon Bridges and Bella Kay performed for a guest list that included Katy Perry, America Ferrera and Shay Mitchell. Gomez also shared a small daily practice for mental health on the carpet, suggesting that people allow themselves to feel what they need to feel before doing something enjoyable — bowling, in her example.
Later, she staged an emotional moment with her Only Murders in the Building co-star Martin Short, tearfully announcing a special new award dedicated to his late daughter, Katherine, who died by suicide earlier this year. The contrast was striking but not unusual for Gomez’s public work: glamour on the outside, a direct conversation about mental health underneath it.
That duality is part of why the Rare Impact Fund gala has become one of Gomez’s more distinctive annual appearances. It is a celebrity event, but the celebrity is not being used as a substitute for the mission. Instead, the fashion, the famous guests and the carefully staged room help pull attention toward youth mental health — while Gomez remains visibly involved as host, founder and speaker.
And then there is the visual strategy, which was impossible to miss. One Selena Gomez in red satin is a red-carpet moment. Selena Gomez in red satin followed by Selena Gomez in champagne fringe is programming. It gives the internet two silhouettes to debate, two sets of details to zoom in on and two entirely different moods to send to a friend with the message: “Which one?”
The answer, inconveniently, is both. The first dress had the drama of a grand arrival; the second had the shimmer of a night that had properly begun. Gomez did not choose between classic and sparkling. She hosted the gala in one, then changed into the other.
Denise Richards Is Closing the Chapel Doors: “Absof—lutely Not” to Marriage No. 3
After Charlie Sheen, a fractured Aaron Phypers split and a brutal legal battle, Richards is done with the paperwork—but not with love.
Denise Richards has apparently reviewed the institution of marriage and would like to unsubscribe.
During an appearance on Jenny McCarthy’s podcast this week, the actor gave a brisk, emphatic answer when asked whether she might ever walk down the aisle again. “Will I ever get married again? Absof—lutely not,” Richards said. “I don’t want that piece of paper.”
That is not the language of someone leaving the door cracked for a tasteful second-chance romance, a low-key Malibu ceremony or a vow renewal staged for a streaming special. That is the language of a woman who has seen the paperwork, the promises and the aftermath—and is now choosing emotional freedom with the force of a court order.
Richards, 55, has been married twice: first to Charlie Sheen, and later to Aaron Phypers. Her first marriage ended in 2006 after roughly four years; her second began with a Malibu wedding in September 2018 and unraveled into a contentious legal fight after Phypers filed for divorce in July 2025.
“I’m 0 for 2” is the new relationship status
Richards summed up her matrimonial record with a line that is both bleak and extremely on-brand for a woman who has spent decades surviving in public: “I’m 0 for 2.”
With Sheen, Richards shares two daughters, Sami, 22, and Lola, 20. She filed for divorce while six months pregnant with Lola and later described the marriage as “very toxic.” In a 2022 appearance on Caroline Stanbury’s podcast, Richards said her breaking point came when she asked herself whether she would want her daughters dating someone like Sheen.
It is a devastatingly simple test, and one that turns a celebrity marriage into something more recognizable: the moment a person stops asking whether a relationship can be saved and starts asking what it is teaching the children watching it.
Sheen’s relationship with Richards played out during one of his most turbulent public eras, when substance abuse struggles and erratic behavior regularly became part of the celebrity news cycle. But Richards did not emerge from that marriage into some blissful, private epilogue. She eventually found Phypers, married him in a romantic Malibu ceremony and then found herself facing another deeply painful split.
The second marriage left a much darker aftertaste
On McCarthy’s podcast, Richards said she is still “unraveling” what happened with Phypers. She claimed that he viewed her as “a product” and that their relationship was “a business arrangement” rather than a marriage. “So that part, I can’t do again,” she said.
Those are not the breezy post-divorce comments of someone complaining about an ex’s bad taste in restaurants. Richards was describing a fundamental collapse of meaning: the idea that the relationship she believed she had entered was not the relationship Phypers believed he was in.
Richards has also accused Phypers of years of physical abuse. She testified in Los Angeles Superior Court about multiple incidents and claimed he caused her “at least three concussions.” Phypers has denied the abuse allegations. In November 2025, a judge granted Richards a five-year restraining order against him, and Page Six reports that Phypers was ordered to pay more than $25,000 in sanctions in September.
Richards said she wants, eventually, to let go of her “hatred” for Phypers because she does not believe carrying it is healthy. But she also made clear that there is plenty she is not ready to package into a neat, inspirational ending. There was, she said, a lot of “s–t” that happened behind closed doors.
That tension is the real story: Richards is trying to move forward without pretending the past was merely a bad date or an ill-advised vacation. She can want peace and still be furious. She can hope to heal and still refuse to soften what she says happened.
No husband, no problem—but love is still on the menu
The most interesting part of Richards’ declaration is that she is not swearing off romance. She is swearing off the legal architecture around it.
“I would have a partner, and I want to fall in love again, so I don’t want to be bitter …” she said.
That is a very 2026 distinction: keep the chemistry, cancel the ceremony; share a life, skip the document; fall in love, retain your own exit strategy. Marriage may be out, but companionship is not. Richards is not announcing that she has become a monk. She is saying that “forever” does not need a witness, a venue or a signature page to feel real—and, given her history, perhaps it should not come with one.
There is also something deliciously Hollywood about the contrast. Richards became famous as a glamorous actor, played a Bond girl and starred on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” a franchise built on women discussing their marriages, divorces, betrayals and dinner-party meltdowns in couture. She knows exactly how quickly a private relationship can become public property. She also knows that a wedding can look like a happy ending while the actual story is only beginning.
Her first marriage connected her to Sheen and the “Two and a Half Men” orbit; her second placed her inside another highly visible relationship that ultimately became a legal and emotional battleground. After two very different versions of public heartbreak, Richards is now choosing the most radical celebrity move of all: she is declining the sequel.
Still, “never again” is one of pop culture’s favorite phrases because it sounds permanent right up until life gets bored and changes the plot. Richards may meet someone who makes her laugh, someone who understands the baggage, someone who never asks her to prove love with a piece of paper. She may remain single. She may build a committed partnership that exists entirely outside the aisle.
For now, the message is clear enough to print on a welcome mat: romance, possibly; marriage, absolutely not. Denise Richards has had two husbands, two very public exits and more than enough experience with the fine print. The next great love of her life can bring flowers. They should leave the officiant at home.