It feels like Adultery Central here lately. Are you getting sick of it? I am, a little. I had to break the news to my mom last night about Sandra Bullock and Jesse and Bombshell, and she almost started crying. I enjoy a good, juicy scandal, but sometimes I do really feel for these people. Take Kate Winslet, for example. While most of us, in the wake of Kate and Sam’s split, were and are like, “Kate and Leo Forever” and hoping that they’ll find their way to each other, we’ve had to deal with something more likely. What’s most likely is that Sam was bonin’ Rebecca Hall, as the British tabloids have been reporting for a couple of days. Here’s one take on the story, from The Daily Mail:

Kate Winslet is set to move back to England after the breakdown of her second marriage, she has told close friends. The Oscar winner, 34, is said to be in ‘turmoil’ about the split with director Sam Mendes and is pondering a move back from New York, where she has lived for nearly seven years, to be close to her friends and family.

A source close to the mother-of-two said: ‘Kate is in meltdown mode and doesn’t know quite what to do. The people she’s close to in New York are mums in schools but she thinks that will all change and her real friends – Emma Thompson, her sister Anna and her parents – are all over here. Kate feels she needs a support system, but she is torn because doesn’t want to disrupt her kids and is able to be very low key in New York.’

Miss Winslet will shortly return to filming her new HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce in the States. As the Mail told yesterday, the blonde star had become ‘frustrated’ with Mendes’ close friendship with English actress Rebecca Hall, 27.

Mendes, 44, had spent the past year working with Miss Hall in London and New York on dual theatre productions of The Cherry Orchard and A Winter’s Tale for the Bridge Project. And Miss Hall has been a ‘shoulder to cry on’ for Mendes as his marriage to Miss Winslet crumbled.

Speaking about Miss Hall’s friendship with Mendes, a source close to Miss Winslet said: ‘When Kate found out that Sam had grown close to Rebecca she was upset. Rebecca is totally Sam’s type – a thespian mix of brains and beauty.’

A source close to Mendes confirmed to the Daily Mail: ‘Sam and Rebecca are good friends, of course they are, they have spent the better part of a year working together on the Bridge Project. But to insinuate that there is anything further in the friendship is taking it too far.’

Meanwhile, others have claimed that Miss Winslet split from Mendes, 44, after he told her he could never be with just one woman for the rest of his life.

Miss Winslet was apparently left in tears after the noted theatre and film director told her in a frank conversation that he did not believe in having just one relationship for the rest of his life.

A close friend of the actress told the Mail: ‘Sam had been really withdrawn and had shut himself away from her. They then had this big talk and he told her ‘people can’t be inspired by just one relationship. For me, it’s never going to be about one relationship… life is a series of relationships.’ Kate told him ‘For me it is, that’s what I want’, but Sam replied ‘Well, that’s not what I want’ and they both knew the marriage could not go on, it was hopeless.’

‘Kate did not want to break up, she had been trying her best to keep things together for months, but in the end it was just too much.’

The couple have a son Joe, six, and Kate’s nine-year-old daughter by her first marriage also lives with them in New York. The children are currently with the star as she holidays with Emma Thompson in Puerto Vallerta in Mexico.

[From The Daily Mail]

Call me crazy, but I think The Mail’s version of events sounds the most plausible of any scenario discussed so far. Did Sam cheat on Kate with Rebecca? I don’t know, and neither does Kate. But she suspected something, and I could totally see Sam trying to talk his way out of the marriage by saying some crap about “not being in one relationship for life” or whatever. Blech.

Meanwhile, however, Rebecca Hall is doing some damage control. I guess she doesn’t want to be painted as a homewrecker? Probably. A friend of Rebecca told Gatecrasher, “Yes, they know each other, but that’s about it. Rebecca has absolutely nothing to do with their split…she’s friends with Kate, too. She thinks they are both wonderful people, and it’s just not appropriate to look towards Rebecca as the reason [for the split]. This is between Sam and Kate.” Oh, and Sam Mendes’ rep denied the rumored affair too, telling media outlets, “There is absolutely no truth to this. Sam and Rebecca are professional colleagues. That’s it.”

And in one last sad theory, Us Weekly is still ringing the “It’s All Kate’s Fault” bell, painting her a career-crazed ball breaker. Us Weekly has Sam telling friends that Kate was “overbearing” and that he was going “stir-crazy” in the marriage, while they have Kate telling Sam, “Your career is not more important than mine.” Burn her!