Monica Bellucci and Tim Burton have been photographed walking arm-in-arm together, sparking rumours that they are dating.
The Italian actor, 58, and the US filmmaker, 64, have reportedly been together for four months, after seeing one another at the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon last October.
The photographs, obtained by The Daily Mail, show the pair walking with their arms linked and sharing a kiss on Valentine’s Day.
They first met 16 years ago, but reports say they reconnected at the French festival last year, where Bellucci was an honorary guest and presented Burton with the Lumiere lifetime achievement award onstage.
Upon receiving the award, the Edward Scissorhands director said: “All my life put together, I had never felt so much love as tonight. Welcome to the best funeral I ever had!”
Bellucci and Burton were also reportedly seen going to a reproduction of the late French filmmaker Louis Lumiere’s 1895 movie, Silent Documentary Film.
The Independent has contacted Bellucci and Burton’s representatives for comment.
Fans reacted with disbelief at the news, with some taking to social media to voice their surprise at the potential pairing.
One person wrote: “How is Tim Burton trending, not for a movie, but because he is dating Monica Bellucci, what’s going on?”
Another had high hopes for the reported couple and said: “Monica Bellucci and Tim Burton are dating and that’s wonderful. Here’s hoping they collaborate on screen as well. The results could be very interesting.”
Burton was previously in a relationship with The Crown star Helena Bonham-Carter, 55, for 13 years before they split in 2014. The pair share two sons, Billy, 20, and Neil, 16.
They lived in adjoining houses in Belsize Park and later connected the two. In an 2010 interview, Bonham-Carter said their separate living situation was good for their relationship, as she was “outrageously bossy” and Burton snored.
Last year, Bonham-Carter opened up about their separation, describing is as a “painful divorce” although they were never married. She is currently dating 33-year-old art historian Rye Dag Holmboe, who she met at a wedding in 2018.
Bellucci has been married twice previously. Her first marriage, which lasted six months, was to Italian photographer Claudia Carlos Basso. She later married French actor Vincent Cassell in 1999 and divorced in 2013. They share two daughters, Deva and Leonie.
Last year, the James Bond star made her stage debut in Maria Callas: Letters and Memoirs, directed by Tom Volf. The play opened in Paris and toured around Italy, Greece and Turkey.
