Personally, I don’t like Olivia Wilde that much, but she’s not on my permanent hate list or anything. I just find her annoying and pretentious, but sometimes she’ll do, say or wear something that I find interesting. And I’m pretty interested in her new romance with Harry Styles. I find them an odd couple, not because of their ages (she’s a decade older than him) but more because of the fact that they’re in such different places in their lives. She’s a mother of two getting out of her second long-term relationship (which was a lot like a marriage) and she’s made major moves to be taken seriously as a director, writer and producer in addition to her acting career. And Harry has been around the music industry for years, but he’s really just “starting out” in a lot of ways. I don’t know. Maybe it will be fine.

Olivia and Harry met on the set of Don’t Worry Darling, which will be Olivia’s second feature length directorial effort. She also co-stars in it, along with Chris Pine, Florence Pugh, Gemma Chan and others. Shia LaBeouf was cast in the film initially, then Olivia fired him and recast the role with Harry. Apparently, sparks flew between Olivia and Harry immediately:

Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde’s new romance might have come as a shock to fans, but those on the set of their upcoming film, Don’t Worry Darling, weren’t surprised by the news. In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, sources says the actress-director, 36, struck up a close friendship with the singer, 26, last fall as they began work on her highly-anticipated sophomore directorial project, which she also stars in.

“What started out as a close friendship, quickly turned romantic,” the source says. “Everyone saw it coming. During breaks, he’s hasn’t been able to stay away and visited her trailer.”

As they spent time together on-and off-set, their friendship “quickly turned romantic,” says an insider. “Their chemistry was very obvious.”

Wilde — who split from fiancé Jason Sudeikis, 45, in early 2020 — brought on the former One Direction singer as the film’s male lead in September. He plays the husband of Florence Pugh’s character, a 1950s housewife who discovers a disturbing truth while living in an isolated community in California. “I did a little victory dance when we heard that we officially had Harry in the film,” Wilde told Vogue for its December issue.

After conservative commentator Candace Owens slammed Styles in November for wearing a dress on the magazine’s cover, Wilde was among many who jumped to his defense, calling Owens “pathetic” on Twitter.

“Olivia was going on and on about how wearing a dress still makes Harry masculine,” says the insider. “It was again just so obvious she had fallen for him.”

Despite their budding romance, the two continue to keep things “very professional” at work.

“Olivia and Harry created this loving and warm environment,” says the insider. “Everyone loved working with them. She takes her work very seriously, but everyone saw it coming.”

[From People Magazine]

Yeah, I get that we’re supposed to think this is cute and cool, but the age gap alongside the professional power gap kind of bugs me, just as it’s bugged me when the genders are reversed and an older male director is smitten with a young actress he’s directing (see also: Darren Aronofsky and Jennifer Lawrence). Everybody has to be really f–king careful. But again, they’re both adults and as long as everyone behaves professionally on the set, so be it and I’m happy for them. Olivia must be so pleased that her second film is getting so much attention already and they haven’t even wrapped.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.