I hope I’m not alone, but I have very mixed feelings about Hilary Swank. On one side, I really like her. She’s a gifted actress with a hard-scrabble background, who has worked her ass off in an industry that rewards people like Gwyneth Paltrow. Swank has received the Best Actress Oscar not once, but twice… which shows she has a significant fan base within Hollywood. People who work with her always talk about her great work ethic, and her lack of affectation.

On the other hand, I tend to think Hilary is a little over-rated. While she is a gifted dramatic actress, I think she sucks when she does anything else, like comedy or thriller or action. And then there’s everything with Hilary’s personal life – the 9-year marriage to Chad Lowe, the struggle with his addiction, and her 2006 post-split Vanity Fair interview in which she called out Chad’s addictions as the sole reason for their split. While I think Hilary was being honest, the whole thing seemed cheap and without class, in my opinion.

Soon after Hilary and Chad split, she was spotted going out on dates with her agent, John Campisi, who was married at the time. I actually didn’t know that before today – CB just schooled me. I always though John was just some nice, normal, average-looking guy, but it seems he and Hilary totally had some kind of affair. His wife filed for divorce soon after pictures of John and Hilary were taken while they were on some kind of romantic holiday during the summer of 2006. They’ve been dating quietly for more than three years now – and Hilary is opening up about the relationship in a new interview:

After her 9-year marriage to Chad Lowe ended in 2006, a bummed Hilary Swank needed someone to lean on for support, and that person just happened to be her agent.

Although initially there was “no spark” between the 35-year-old Oscar winnter and John Campisi, in time it became clear there was something there. “What’s interesting is, there was never anything, it wasn’t until we were well into the dissipation of our respective relationships — going through something so difficult at the same time, we became very good friends.”

After they began dating, they opted to nix their professional relationship.

“We became closer and closer. It was so unexpected. We both recognized that if we were going to take the relationship to the next step, we could no longer work together.”

In the few years since they’ve been quietly dating, Swank has grown close to Campisi’s son, Sam, and now is itching to have some of her own.

“I’d most definitely like children of my own. It’s something I’d like to do someday. And when that timing is right I’ll hopefully know it.”

[From Popeater]

Of all of the actresses who seem to put their careers ahead of everything and everyone else (no judgment, just be honest about it), I tend to think Hilary is the most likely to actually stop working for a few years and actually start a family. Campisi’s son – whom Hilary references – is from his marriage that ended when his affair became public. The child was a toddler when Hilary swooped in, so the kid’s probably five or six years now. If John and Hilary get married, she’ll be a step-mom – and I’ve got wonder if John’s ex-wife likes Hilary talking about her child. I also wonder why they haven’t gotten married yet? Do you think Hilary is gun-shy after Chad Lowe? Or is Campisi the one holding up the works?

The blurry pictures are of Hilary Swank and John Campisi at a party at the Ischia Film Festival on 7/11/07. I hope that fool is drunk. Credit: Fame Pictures. The header and 1 other picture is of Hilary and John at LAX on 4/12/09. Credit: Bauergriffinonline