As we know now, Leonardo DiCaprio and Blake Lively are a thing. They’ve been circling each other like two predators for months now, and since they were photographed together during the Cannes Film Festival, it’s been official. After Cannes, Leo even took Blake to Italy for a little getaway. I think Blake’s hustle worked. I think she gets to be Leo’s girlfriend. For now. Us Weekly agrees with me – their sources (who sound like Blake’s friends) make it sound like Leo was trying to get with Blake for months, and that they even had a makeout session back in January.

Leonardo DiCaprio checked his Blackberry nervously as he waited aboard Steven Spielberg’s yacht, anchored off the coast of Southern France. He fussed with his hair, flossed his teeth – and then spied the object of his impatience approaching on a small boat.

“He started waving like crazy,” says an eyewitness of the May 17 rendezvous between Blake Lively and Leo. And as soon as she stepped onto the $200 million vessel, “Blake gave Leo a long, lingering hug,” says the witness. “They had their hands on each other’s backs and were grinning ear to ear.”

Sources say Leo and Lively have turned a six-month-old flirtation and one party dalliance in January into the beginnings of a relationship.

Says one source, “They’re dating a bit – taking things slow, slow, slow.”

Whether “slow” includes driving 160 miles for a date remains to be seen, but they looked cozy May 22 during a day trip to the fishing village of Portofino, Italy.

“When they stopped to look at something, Blake would lean into him,” says a source. “He was smiling.”

After they first met, back in November 2010, “Leo started pursuing Blake with emails and texts,” a Lively source says. “Things were definitely headed south with Bar at that point.” Adds another source, “Leo thinks Blake is gorgeous.”

Two months later, in January, they met up again at an LA birthday party for Jeremy Renner. Early in the night, they moved their conversation to the balcony and were even spotted kissing. “They’d talk, then peck on the lips… it was really sweet.”

Sources say Lively was initially way of Leo’s ladies’ man reputation. But, “Blake has always had a crush on Leo… Titanic is one of her favorite movies.”

Lively plans to spend a month in France to finish her month of French lessons and cooking classes, and Leo isn’t due on the Great Gatsby set until August.

“Blake is definitely being wooed,” says a source. “This could be the beginning of something.”

[From Us Weekly, print edition]

Other tabloids seem to agree that Blake and Leo are on, but they disagree as to why Leo chose Blake instead of his usual standard-issue supermodel. In Touch Weekly (via Jezebel) claims that this is all a strategic move for Blake, that she’s angling to be the next Julia Roberts, and she needs a high-profile boyfriend (who isn’t married, I suppose). Meanwhile, Life & Style (via Jezebel) says that Leo dumped Bar Refaeli because Bar kept pressuring him to have a baby, while Blake just plays it cool around Leo. Blake is pulling the “I’m so busy and important” stuff and it makes Leo want her even more, because he’s used to girls dropping everything to be with him. For that theory, my only response is to quote Sex & the City: “Don’t play hard to get with a man who’s hard to get.” You got that, Blake?

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.