The Hottest Post-Pandemic Look Is Celebrities in Chaos

On an unseasonably cool day in New York City, Jennifer Lopez’s ex, Alex Rodriguez, was caught by the paparazzi leaving the apartment building where a recently-single Katie Holmes lives. God knows who or what he was doing there, but the celebrity press seized upon this sighting as if it were a sign of something other than what it actually is: pure, unfiltered, celebrity chaos.

Sure, the generous interpretation of these photos, published by the Daily Mail, is that Alex Rodriguez is smarting from Jennifer Lopez’s fast and furious reunion with her one true love, Ben Affleck, and is choosing to work through his big feelings by poking his baseball bat wherever he can and seeing what sticks. He reportedly did a workout with his ex, Cynthia Scurtis, over the weekend, and then, following said workout, did something at Katie Holmes’s apartment building, leading to the natural conclusion that yes, of course, Alex Rodriguez is weaseling his way into the heart of Joey from Dawson’s Creek, who broke up with her boyfriend, chef Emilio Vitolo Jr., in May.

Under any other circumstances, this pairing would make little to no sense, but under our current guidelines, where the rules are out the window and everyone’s figuring out how to live their lives anew, Alex Rodriguez pecking at the scraps of the former A-list celebrity sphere tracks. Katie Holmes is famous but not Famous, and Alex Rodriguez just wants a little companionship—someone who understands the rigors of dating a big star. Yes, in this equation, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Cruise are on the same level of fame, while A-Rod and Katie Holmes are the two lessers who were forced to live in their dizzying orbit. Maybe he needs a little understanding, or maybe he is just sad. Either way, he was present at an apartment building that just happens to be where Katie Holmes lives (it also houses a tattoo parlor, for the record), and that’s all the press needs to make a mountain out of a molehill.