Step aside, Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet: there was another duo sparking breathless romantic discourse at the 2024 Golden Globes. That would be Meryl Streep and Martin Short, who were each nominated Sunday night for their performances in season 3 of Only Murders in the Building as dip-loving theater producer Oliver Putnam and the failed actress he discovers, Loretta Durkin.
Oliver and Loretta fell in love onscreen; recently, the public learned that Streep has long been separated from her husband, Don Gummer. Those details, plus Short and Streep’s cozy appearance at the Globes, led certain corners of the internet to speculate that these two could be together in real life as well.
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“Are Meryl Streep and Martin Short dating… because if that’s true… that’s like Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner multiplied by Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft…” comedy writer Louis Virtel tweeted during Sunday’s broadcast, one of multiple messages expressing similar excitement and bewilderment over the potential development. The camera panned to Short and Streep, seated alongside co-star Selena Gomez, multiple times throughout the evening. (Fellow Only Murders lead Steve Martin was not present for the ceremony.)
Alas, the rumor mill, which has apparently been churning over on Reddit since early last December, has been brought to a standstill by Short himself. “They are just very good friends, nothing more,” a rep for the actor told The Messenger on Tuesday.
Perhaps the world has been eager to pair Streep with one of her Hollywood peers since it was confirmed last October that she has been quietly separated from her husband for several years. “Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than six years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart,” her rep told People of the couple, who had been married for 45 years and share four children. At the time, Page Six noted that Streep had continued to wear her wedding band at some public events. While the actor wore a ring to the Globes, it does not appear to be the same band.
Short, whose late wife Nancy Dolman died from ovarian cancer in 2010, spoke glowingly about Streep at a For Your Consideration event last month. “I will tell you honestly, I’ve known Meryl a little bit through the years but on the first day of shooting, I was a little unusually nervous for me, because I was thinking, ‘I’m doing a two-person scene with Meryl Streep,’” Short said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. After filming the scene at the piano, Short recalled, “Meryl said to me, ‘OK, so my nerves are now down to half.’ So I guess she was nervous working with me.”