Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr have been informally separated for months. Makes sense, doesn’t it? They’ve barely spent any time together – much less in the same city – for more than a year. So why is it that fresh off of their separation announcement, Miranda and Orlando stepped out for a pap stroll on Friday with Flynn Kerr-Bloom? Flynn is side-eyeing this whole endeavor. That being said, I guess Orlando and Miranda wanted to make it clear to the world that they are still going to co-parent and this will not get messy. Ah, I love a good dash of optimism. Usually it’s the last thing you remember before you’re strangling your ex-spouse’s divorce lawyer.

When Orlando was stopped by TMZ’s cameras on Friday, he was asked if he and Miranda would remain friends. He said: “We’re not friends. We’re family.” Touching. And after these photos were taken, Orlando kissed both Miranda and Flynn goodbye and headed off to the theater for his evening show of Romeo & Juliet. Yes, as I said – this is the last surge of optimism before it all goes to hell. We’re also in the early stages of the tabloids digging for the REAL dirt behind their split:

Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr’s split has been “coming for a year,” say friends. The pair have spent a lot of the last year apart, focusing on their busy careers.

British actor Bloom, 36, who’s starring in Broadway’s “Romeo and Juliet,” had been filming the final installments of “The Hobbit” and “Zulu” in South Africa. Meanwhile, 30-year-old, Australian-born Kerr has been traveling the world for her modeling career and building her brand, which includes a skincare line, KORA Organics.

Kerr sparked rumors of marital trouble after last year’s Victoria’s Secret show by partying late with Justin Bieber, but her reps insisted she and the Biebs, 19, were friends and her marriage to Bloom was solid. There were also rumors about Kerr and Leonardo DiCaprio, again denied by her camp.

Orlando and Miranda wed in July 2010, and their son, Flynn, was born Jan. 6, 2011. On Friday, they said in a joint statement they had separated after three years of marriage.

“They have been amicably separated for the past few months,” reads the statement. “After six years together, they have recently decided to formalize their separation. Despite this being the end of their marriage, they love, support and respect each other as both parents of their son and as family.”

To all around them, the split seems extremely amicable, and both seem happy. Last Thursday, Bloom was celebrating at Hakkasan in New York with his mom and more than 10 friends. A witness told us, “Orlando was in really good spirits, dining on black truffle-roasted duck and drinking cocktails.”

And just a few days ago, Orlando and Miranda appeared amicable leaving 1600 Broadway, where Orlando is rumored to be living during his Broadway role with son Flynn. A spy said, “They seemed to be a very caring and loving couple. They didn’t seem like a couple that had just separated, and are clearly remaining close for their son.”

[From Page Six]

I hope for Flynn’s sake that this happy arrangement stays amicable. I hope they will figure out a way to co-parent and that there won’t be a fight over money and infidelity and lies. I hope that simply admitting (at long last) that their marriage wasn’t working out was just the relief that both of them needed. But… look at Miranda’s face. That’s the look of a woman who wants to have her cake and eat it too. She wants to be thought of as a perky, devoted, wholesome working mother AND she wants to trade Orlando in for someone richer/more successful. Like Leonardo DiCpario.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.