St Patrick's Day is often a cultural cause for celebration, regardless of whether one is of Irish descent.
This particularly rang true in 2024, even for those without shamrocks, pints of Guinness, Leprechauns or listening to The Cranberries on repeat - this Paddy's Day was a cause for celebration because native heartthrob Paul Mescal and American actress and all-round cool-girl Ayo Edibiri sent fans into a frenzy by potentially soft-launching a relationship.
In honour of Ireland's national day, Ayo, who recently won an Emmy and Golden Globe for her role as chef Sydney Adamu in comedy-drama The Bear, shared an Instagram story with her 1m followers, sat laughing with Paul, with the caption "Happy Paddy's Day [shamrock emoji]".
Whenever the stylish duo get together, it's always a fashionable affair, and Ayo has been through somewhat of a style renaissance recently - from her Marylin Monroe-esque Bottega Veneta gown worn at the 2024 BAFTAs to donning the chicest Thom Browne corset set to open Saturday Night Live, the 28-year-old and her stylist Danielle Goldberg have paved the way to her earning the title of one of 2024's fashion icons.
© GettySo the question on everybody's lips is - are she and Paul linked romantically?
It remains unconfirmed, but what we do know, is that Mr Mescal wants to do a rom-com with Ayo. In an interview with Awards Watch when discussing the prospect of him doing a comedy movie, Paul said: “That’s one of those I leave the cinema and I’m incredibly jealous and brightened by everybody’s talents involved with that film. But I think in the next five years I’m going to set myself a challenge to do maybe a rom-com with Ayo, or something like that would be cool.” Yes Paul, that would be cool indeed.
© GettyThough we have our fingers and toes crossed they're Hollywood's cutest new duo since Zendaya and Tom Holland, there's a chance Ayo was simply playing into her 'adopted' Irish heritage.
In case you missed it, in March 2023 Ayo interviewed with Letterboxd to promote her movie Bottoms, and joked that she starred in the Oscar-nominated film The Banshees of Inisherin playing a donkey, and proceeded to do an impressive Irish accent.
Since that moment, she's kept the joke about her (non) Irish heritage going - from mentioning the country in her acceptance speeches at both the Critics Choice Awards and the Emmys, to The Irish Times writing a whole article on why they're proud to accept Ayo as an Irishwoman.
We're praying to the Irish gods that if they're not romantically linked, a rom-com is on the cards...
