Anatomy of a Hollywood Hookup: How Celebs Couple Up So Quickly & Always Look Like They're on the Fast Track to Forever

Sure, stars like Selena Gomez and The Weeknd seem to be going from 0-to-100, but really they're old pals who need to strike while the iron is hot (i.e. while they're both in town)

By Natalie Finn Jan 11, 2017 9:18 PMTags

Hollywood is like one giant ladies room. You've always got to go with a buddy.

And paparazzi spied a couple of new buddies last night—Selena Gomez and The Weeknd. What, buddies kiss while they're walking.

Oh, not usually? Anyway, a source tells E! News that whatever is going on is recent and it is romantic—so your eyes do not deceive you!

Good for the both of them, particularly Selena (you know, because Bieber), but our first thought was, Well, that came out of nowhere. And yet, when you're dealing with the celebrity dating world, a microcosm of the regular dating world that's eerily familiar and yet plays by its own rules, anything is possible.

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Taylor Swift on Dating and Relationships

While they don't necessarily all qualify as relationships, as in "so-and-so is in a relationship" on Facebook, celebrities do seem to pair off at a rapid pace. Even the ones who are confidently declaring on a talk show that they're not seeing anyone; or who have recently suffered a heartbreak; or, like Selena, suffered a heartbreak ages ago and was given exactly zero space to get over it—they don't seem to stay single for long.

Or even if they still consider themselves single, they don't look particularly...alone.

Moreover, when a new celebrity couple emerges, they always seem to have gone from 0 to 100 before you even realized they were dating.

But there are reasons for that.

Because of the logistical difficulties of dating an actor, a singer (especially a singer or someone who goes on tour), a royal or any type of person whose work requires tons of travel, you have to strike when the iron is hot. So if two people are in the same city for a bit, or on a break from recording or touring, if they like each other they want to spend as much time together as possible.

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Famous Celeb Squads
Splash News

A transcontinental romp around Europe, Australia and the U.S., as Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston engaged in last summer, is a years-in-the-making trip for most people. For Hiddleswift, it's a really grand first date.

When Drake and Rihanna are in the same city, they've all of a sudden rekindled the romance that took flight for a hot second in 2009. In between those sojourns, Drake tends to be spotted with a variety of women; but last month, Jennifer Lopez entered the picture. Their coupling has been met with both "oohs" and skepticism, with some calling it the real deal (at least for Drake) and others speculating that they're just getting fans hyped for a musical collaboration.

We'll see what happens after the music comes out, but E! News has learned that, for their New Year's Eve date, J.Lo was sporting a $100,000 diamond necklace that Drake picked out himself at Tiffany in Beverly Hills and gave to her.

While that certainly qualifies as forever-diamonds in our little book, buying extraordinarily expensive jewelry barely a month into a relationship still isn't a gauge of how serious it is when it comes to Hollywood.

Besides, if they're just working together, can't Drake write it off as a business expense?

Eric Charbonnuea/Invision for Twentieth Century Fox/AP Images

It doesn't seem likely that Rihanna is too broken up, considering she's had her own string of beaus over the past few years, though she did unfollow her friend J.Lo on Instagram (and she never did follow Drake, at least not recently). Perhaps Rihanna is fine with Drake dating around in general, since she does too, but J.Lo—both a pal to her and a goddess to everyone—is taking it to another level.

That being said, if you're also wondering where celebrity couples meet—they're just like us. Through mutual friends and at parties. Just a different caliber of party, that's all.

And by party, we could mean events like a film festival, the Met Gala or the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

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Golden Globes 2017 Party Pics
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Selena Gomez and The Weeknd both performed at the annual lingerie fest in 2015, and it was apparent that the "Can't Feel My Face" singer was a fan.

It's also possible that they knew each other already, as Selena has palled around on occasion with Gigi Hadid—usually in the company of Taylor Swift, who cast them both in her "Bad Blood" video, but sometimes apart from the greater squad.

And, of course, The Weeknd was dating Gigi's younger sister, Bella Hadid, off and on for about a year and a half, up until two months ago.

There isn't any photographic evidence that Selena spent much time around Bella, but proximity is half the battle. Combine that with celebrities just being places, often the same places, and the tendency is to stick with who you know. Or at least people you know are all right.

Plus, isn't it always nice if you meet someone you like and it turns out you have a mutual friend? There's something comforting about it, and celebrities in particular can't be too careful about who they hitch their wagons to.

Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

Meanwhile, members of Taylor's own squad have swapped boyfriends enough to prove that, while it's a small world after all, it can be so much smaller for celebrities.

Sure, some have dated and married outside the pack, as any award show red carpet full of delightful yet otherwise anonymous significant others shows. But most of those relationships formed before the future celeb half of the couple was famous—although Amy Schumer seems to have hit the love jackpot with furniture designer Ben Hanisch, so...there are no rules in the end.

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Celebrity Rebound Romances
HEDO / 42 / BACKGRID

But celebs often flock together romantically. And if you don't know one, you probably know another person who does. Or they know someone. Or they share an agent or publicist. (And having the extra boost that a trusted friend who can vouch for your new love interest provides, perhaps that adds to the auto-comfort that some celeb couples seem to exhibit around each other.)

Speaking of musical dating among the Taylor squad, it's been reported that Joe Jonas met current paramour Sophie Turner—British, actress on Game of Thrones, when would they ever be in the same room?—through mutual friends. Simple as that.

And if she's not busy shooting one of the most talked-about shows on TV (excuse us, HBO), sure, why wouldn't she want to spend a whole bunch of time hanging out with adorable, charming Joe?

We've yet to find out exactly how Selena and The Weeknd connected (or re-connected, since they obviously knew each other), especially considering she went 90 days without using her cell phone and now, seemingly out of the blue—though we know better—here they are looking most content with each other.

But we know they've got mutual friends.