You can't help noticing there's a bit of an age gap: he is 64 and she's 29. I bring up the subject partly because if the age-gap was reversed then the female partner would be getting hammered by the tabloids just now (Cher, Madonna...). But Mr Ferry seems to be escaping much of that kind of bitching and a good deal of the reaction is of the dirty-lucky-dog variety. Mainly because he is male, of course, but also because not only is he still seen by many as the ultimate in cool but also because he's supposed to have aged quite well -- as compared to, say, Sir Paul McCartney (well respected by many but also targeted for his badly dyed hair, etc).
What the hell -- good luck to them, it is none of our business, etc, etc...
But -- one thing I've noticed:
Something seems to happen to these older celebrities (male or female) when they take up with someone way younger than themselves: the comparison does them no favours in any photographs -- the older woman starts to look unflatteringly mumsy or even utterly decrepit and the older man begins to look like a doddery old duffer. Like he should be playing someones grandfather in a soap.
Maybe they don't care about how the public perceives them; any celebrity who cares too much about that is, let's face it, on a hiding to nowhere because there will always be some nasty ripping-apart out there. In fact, I would say that genuinely not caring too much about what other people think about
how you look may even be one of the secrets of a very happy life -- whether you are a celebrity or not.
Anyway, while I'm in an uncharacteristically bitchy and snide mood, here's some SATC on the older man:
