LOS ANGELES - "Cougar" has always been a fairly derisive term, its continued use underscoring the lingering taboo around relationships in which the woman is significantly older than the man.
The word suggests predation rather than romance, and the lack of an equivalent pejorative for the far more common older man-younger woman pairing suggests a double standard at play.
So, it has been fascinating to see Hollywood defy that cultural script in 2024 with a string of steamy age-gap romances starring Oscar-winning actresses opposite much younger male actors.
Anne Hathaway's 40-year-old gallery owner falls for a 24-year-old boy band heart-throb (Nicholas Galitzine) in the romantic comedy-drama The Idea Of You (2024), which was released on Prime Video.
Sparks fly between Laura Dern's 50-something author and a 30-something finance guy (Liam Hemsworth) in the Netflix drama Lonely Planet (2024).
And Nicole Kidman's middle-aged writer catches the eye of a movie star 16 years her junior in the romantic drama A Family Affair (2024) on Netflix.
Esta historia es de la edición January 01, 2025 de The Straits Times.
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Esta historia es de la edición January 01, 2025 de The Straits Times.
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