A chat from 2005 has recently resurfaced in which Mischa Barton claims she was told to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio. She was 19 years old, while he was 30.
The OC actress, who is now 37, claimed that at the height of her fame in everyone’s fave teen dramahhh, her then-publicist Craig Schneider encouraged the 19-year-old to sleep with DiCaprio to help boost her career.
In the 2005 interview with Harpers & Queen, Barton said that Schneider told her: “For the sake of your career, go and sleep with that man.”
But Mischa said she wasn’t interested in older men, drawing attention to the obvious age disparity between the two. “Isn’t Leo, like, 30 or something?”
At the time, he had just broken up with Gisele Bündchen, age 25, after dating for five years.
this aged well pic.twitter.com/DpaNKvJe4T
— popculturediedin2009 (@pcd2009) February 7, 2023
The interview has recently resurfaced after the now 48-year-old DiCaprio was spotted with the 19-year-old teen model Eden Polani. I repeat: TEEN.
The key difference now is that there is 24 years difference between DiCaprio and Polani. Fkn YIKES.
To put it all into perspective, Polani can’t legally drink alcohol in the US. She also wasn’t even alive when Titanic came out.
It’s the youngest person he has been linked to since 1999, when he was dating Bündchen.
On Tuesday (Jan. 31st) night #LeonardoDiCaprio was seen hanging out with friends while celebrating the release of singer Ebony Riley’s debut EP in LA. pic.twitter.com/xYRwoRUvNA
— Daily Leo DiCaprio (@dailyleodicapri) February 2, 2023
The controversy resurfaced when pop culture Twitter account @popculturediedin2009 reposted the interview from 2005.
But a bunch of the comments did not pass the vibe check.
“I’m torn by the Leo shaming,” one said. “I recognise that I’m too old for him, but I still find him attractive. Perhaps this is why we’re all so jealous?”
“I think it’s well known in Hollywood that Leo is a conduit for publicity for young models,” another said. “Those relationships are probably more transactional than we think.”
Another praised DiCaprio for entering into supposedly “publicity-boosting agreements” with his new partners and that it was “good for all of them”.
One other comment had a yuck, victim-blamey take that perfectly relinquished DiCaprio of any wrongdoing:
“Perfect example [of] how the women can just refuse to date Leo… it’s not that hard. So both Leo and the young women that chose to date him should be shamed, they are not victims.”
Tbh, it’s all a bit sickening.
There are several layers to this that warrant a big fat WTF plastered over it.
First, what kind of publicist suggests a 19-year-old fresh actress to fuck someone 11 years older than them? If that’s the only way you can boost your career, it’s time to boot your fucking publicist.
Second, DiCaprio’s inclination towards younger women has been well-documented and rightly criticised. While his dating expiry date of 25 is so ridiculous it’s almost become a bit tongue-in-cheek. But make no mistake — it’s creepy and gross for a man who is literally these women’s fathers ages to be dating them, let alone hanging out with them.
Finally, let’s not pretend that these young women have even an equal say or dynamic in these relationships. DiCaprio is one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, and without even considering these cooked age differences, there’s a clear uneven power dynamic at play.
It’s complex and much more nuanced than a simple shit-take that says that both parties are to blame. No, they aren’t.
A friendly reminder: women’s brains don’t stop developing until they’re 25. You’re literally asking children to have a better sense of right and wrong than an almost 50-year-old bloke.
Really makes you remember some wise words spouted by our girl Taylor Swift: “I’ll get older but your lovers stay my age.”
