Here's what ET has learned after Natalie Portman and Paul Mescal were spotted hanging out.
Some not-so-normal people! Natalie Portman and Paul Mescal were spotted out together in London smoking a cigarette outside of Bar 69 in Islington, London.
In the images, which were posted by The Daily Mail, the 42-year-old actress and 28-year-old actor, who seem to have first met while doing a Variety Actors on Actors interview last year, are seen laughing and smoking together in matching white T-shirts.
Portman, who recently finalized her divorce from ex Benjamin Millepied in March, went casual in wide-legged jeans and sneakers. Mescal, who's been romantically linked to singer Phoebe Bridgers and actress Sophie Wilde in recent years, sported baggy black trousers and matching sneakers.
While romance rumors have been swirling since the photos surfaced, ET has learned that Portman and Mescal are just friends.
During their December 2023 interview with Variety, Mescal gushed about Portman, telling her, "If my grammar school self knew that I would be talking to you, I would pinch myself many, many times."
Similarly, the May December star praised the breakout Irish actor's work, saying, "I remember seeing you in Normal People and just being like, 'Oh my gosh, who is this talent?' And everything you've chosen since then has been so interesting and so smart and so intricately played."
Portman and Mescal's other connection is that her ex-husband, Millepied, directed him in the 2022 film Carmen.
Portman shares son Aleph, 12, and daughter Amalia, 7, with Millepied, whom she divorced after rumors surfaced that the French dancer and choreographer, who she met on the set of Black Swan, was unfaithful.
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