CULTURE

Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix Are Engaged

No word on whether or not pie will be served at the wedding.

by Jocelyn Silver

Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix
Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

After three years of dating, Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix are engaged. Us Weekly confirmed the news yesterday, though engagement rumors have dogged the couple for a few months now. Back in May, Mara was photographed by paparazzi running errands in Los Angeles (carrying a “Go Vegan” bag, natch) while sporting a rather large diamond ring.

Mara, 34, and Phoenix, 44, were friends before they began filming 2016’s Mary Magdalene (Mara played Magdalene, Phoenix played Jesus), and they started dating shortly after the film wrapped, making their debut as a couple at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony. In a New York Times profile that year, Phoenix told author Bret Easton Ellis that he and Mara were living together in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles (the actress then sold her home in the Los Feliz neighborhood). The two are pretty low-key; they stay home, watch murder documentaries, are occasionally photographed out and about with cigarettes. They’re also both staunch supporters of animal rights. In June they made headlines for leading the National Animal Rights Day demonstration in West Hollywood, marching with dead birds in their hands.

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara march at the 2019 National Animal Rights Day demonstration in Los Angeles.

Hollywood To You/Star Max

In 2014, Phoenix, a renowned troll (remember his 2010 faux-documentary about his life falling apart, I’m Still Here?), faked an engagement with a yoga instructor. “I think my life is so boring and it seemed like something exciting to talk about and I wanted the audience to like me,” he told Good Morning America. “They really like people getting married. I can get engaged again, if you like.” In a statement regarding the joke, his publicist said that “Joaquin has an extraordinary and spontaneous sense of humor but it is not true.”

Back in 2018, a source told Us that Mara and Phoenix were not likely to get engaged, saying the two were “so in love” but that they “think marriage is too mainstream.” No word on whether or not they will be serving pie at the wedding.