AMID this howling tempest of an era, you will be delighted to know that many millions are still able to obsess over the little things, like salad dressing, which in the lives of an erstwhile Hollywood couple, was apparently a big thing. Let’s tuck in…
Everything is on fire, but…
…we are taking a break from the flames of finance and politics to focus on salad dressing, yes. And why not, as it transpires that although to many, salad dressing is just a condiment, it may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for one Hollywood couple.
Do go on…
It’s nice to talk about salad dressing, don’t you think? Well, it takes one’s mind off the doom and gloom of politics and inflation and conflict…except it apparently did prove to be a conflict in the demise of the engagement between Ted Lasso’s Jason Sudekis and House and Tron: Legacy actress, Olivia Wilde.
They were Hollywood darlings?
They began dating in 2011, got engaged two years later and have two children together, but they split up in 2020 and Wilde is now seeing British pop star Harry Styles, who stars in her latest directorial offering, Don't Worry Darling, with the off-set drama garnering many a tabloid headline.
So what’s happening now?
The flames were fanned this week when an anonymous woman, who claims to have been a nanny for Wilde and Sudekis's children, was quoted in a Daily Mail article, alleging that Sudekis told her of Wilde, “She made this salad and she made her special dressing and she’s leaving with her salad to have dinner with [Harry]” and “She has a special salad dressing she makes for us and she’s taken it to have it with him now”. She also claims Sudekis texted her that Wilde "took her salad, and dressing and left”.
And then…?
The idea that the salad dressing was almost the worst betrayal set social media alight. One desperate tweeter declared, “I need to know absolutely everything about Olivia Wilde’s ‘special salad dressing’.”
And now we know?
Although Wilde and Sudekis dismissed the nanny’s “false and scurrilous” claims, Wilde yesterday posted the salad dressing recipe on her social media and it turns out that it is in fact taken from a page in the late Nora Ephron’s autobiographical novel, Heartburn, which was inspired by her own parting from her husband, Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein - who had an affair with Margaret Jay, the daughter of former British PM James Callaghan.
Politics!!
It came back around to politics. Deepest apologies.
But back to the recipe…
It features in a section of the book - which was turned into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson - where the main character Rachel reveals you “mix 2 tablespoons Grey Poupon mustard with 2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar. Then, whisking constantly with a fork, slowly add 6 tablespoons olive oil, until the vinaigrette is thick and creamy”.
So now we know!
The world is on fire but we can still make some nice salad dressing, courtesy of Wilde and Ephron.
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