Uma Thurman, 37, is engaged to her Swiss millionaire boyfriend, according to reports. They’ve only been together for a few months, but supposedly Arpad Busson, 44, has proposed to the actress and mother of two.

The ‘Kill Bill’ actress, who has only been dating banker Arpad ‘Arki’ Busson since the summer, was said to be shocked and delighted when Arpad proposed to her last week.

A source said: “They have only been together a few months, but Arpad was determined to snap Uma up as quickly as possible. They make a great couple and are totally smitten with each other.”

The couple are yet to set a wedding date or choose a location for the nuptials.

[FromMonsters and Critics via ONTD]

Thurman and Busson met this summer. in July at a dinner in Milan hosted by Gianni Versace and Tony Blair (Update: commentor Jen UK notes that Gianni Versace died in 1997, so they couldn’t have met there. It’s possible the mention of their meeting is taken out of context and applies to Busson and Elle Macpherson, not Busson and Thurman. The Wikipedia entry may have been edited to make it seem as if that sentence applied to the wrong woman.) Busson is an investment banker and earned his fortune through starting his own hedge fund business in 1992. He dated Farrah Fawcett when he was young and was with Elle Macpherson for around three years, fathering two children with her. Busson and Macpherson split up July, 2005.

Wikipedia notes that Macpherson said that Busson would not marry a divorced woman despite having two children with her, as he is a devout Catholic. So either he has changed his mind or this news isn’t true. Thurman divorced her second husband and the father of her two children, Ethan Hawke, in 2004 after rumors of his infidelity with a young Canadian model. She was last linked to hotelier Andre Balazs, and seems to have had a tumultuous relationship with him as there were stories that they broke up several times.

Busson lives in London while Thurman lives in Hyde Park, NY.

Uma and Arpad are shown on 9/15/07 thanks to Splash News.

Ethan Hawke used to be one of the Hollywood Hot Guys, then he sort of drifted off the radar. Replaced by Matt Damon maybe? Anyway, he used to be married to Uma Thurman, but they got divorced in 2004. Here’s what he has to say about being in a celebrity couple.

“It’s unfair when one person’s career is taking off and the other is really suffering,” the 36-year-old actor tells AMC’s “Shootout” in an interview slated to air Sunday.

“What happens – it’s not that they’re jealous of each other; it’s that the person you share your life with isn’t in the mood to support,” Hawke says. “You want to have a pity party for yourself, but they’re off to the Golden Globes and you don’t want to go because everyone is going to think you are jealous.”

Forbes

Everyone is going to think you’re jealous? You were jealous, staying at home and having a pity party indeed! Ethan obviously doesn’t realise that regular couples have the same issue, their careers don’t follow the same course just because they’re married.

Last year Uma Thurman had this to say about her marriage:

“I think it’s fair to say that I haven’t said one mean thing, and I’m not going to start now. It’s terrible for my family.”

People

I wonder if Ethan Hawke, who was rumoured at the end of their marriage to have been unfaithful, has opened the floodgates for some mean comments?

Valentino celebrated his 45th anniversary as a top designer with a star-studded three day affair in Rome this weekend to the tune of over $10 million. Celebrities including Uma Thurman, Claire Danes, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Hudson, Liz Hurley, Eva Mendes, Claudia Schiffer, Joan Collins, Rupert Everett, and Guan Yin attended a fashion show, exhibition, dinner, and gala ball in honor of the famed designer.

The bash kicked off on Friday with a gala dinner in the 2nd century Temple of Venus in the shadow of the Colosseum.

Valentino, 75, spent a reported £135,000 restoring the ancient monument built by the Emperor Hadrian and flew in royal florist Rob Van Helden from London to bedeck columns with garlands of flowers.

He also launched an exhibition of his creations in the city’s Ara Pacis museum with examples of his coveted designs showcased behind bulletproof glass.

Visitors were greeted by a giant red glass cube encasing one of his earlier dresses, then led along a walkway featuring 300 of his designs in red, black and white on mannequins.

The collection included sequined and ruffled gowns worn by the likes of Audrey Hepburn after Valentino opened his first boutique in Rome in the 1960s.

On Saturday a 1,000-strong audience watched him unveil his latest collection of 61 outfits in the medieval Santo Spirito in Sassia church near the Vatican.

The opulent bash continued with a lavish party in the grounds of historic Villa Borghese and the launch of his new perfume, Rock’n'Rose Couture.

[From The Daily Mail]

While the 74 year-old Valentino has not mentioned that he’s retiring, his fashion house was taken over by a private equity group in May, with the handover to be finished sometime this summer. His partner said that everything would continue as usual under the new owners, but the equity group that has acquired the firm is known for cost-cutting and are expected to reign in Valentino’s excessive spending. At least he’ll always have Rome.

There have been some recent statements by 36 year-old Uma Thurman that make it sound like she’s a little depressed as she gets older and her sex symbol status diminishes. She supposedly said that guys don’t hit on her, but I would suspect that quote is made up since the wording sounds decidedly British and I can’t find a source:

Men rarely chat me up, if I’m honest. And certainly not the right sort. ‘I’m not sure what the right sort is, although cheesy chat-up lines definitely don’t work on me. I’ve heard quite a few of those. The worst has to be, ‘Hey, has anyone ever told you that you look like Uma Thurman?’

And she’s also bemoaned her “sagging” body, which still looks great. This was also reported in a British magazine, but the quote sounds a little more realistic to me:

‘I really like the gym but I never find time to go when I’m working,’ she tells The Mail On Sunday.

‘I work and then I have my personal life with my kids, so I am left with an ever-softening body… my ever-sagging body.’

That just happens when you get older, but why sweat it when you still look better than 90% of the women in your age bracket? Thurman is gorgeous, she just needs to work it a little more and hire a makeup artist before she goes to events. She’s using crappy mascara here that doesn’t even cover her lashes, just a smudge of eyeliner, and she doesn’t even seem to have foundation on. Many celebrities look too made up before events, or they do it poorly themselves with a heavy hand like Gwyneth Paltrow, but Thurman looks like she spent five minutes in front of the mirror applying less than the basics and just said ‘f it.

Thurman is shown at 5th Annual Women of Discovery Awards in New York on 3/1/07. Pictures from Gossip Rocks.

Uma Thurman looks gorgeous at last night’s Whitney Museum Fall gala. Other stars that were said to be planning to attend were Shirley MacLaine, Michelle Williams, Ivanka Trump, and Regis Philbin. I can’t quite see her companion’s face, but he does look like her long term boyfriend, hotel owner Andre Balazs. These two were said to be broken up in the Spring, but were spotted together out and about and on vacation right after Uma’s people announced their split.

Uma’s ex, suffering emo actor Ethan Hawke, has said that he was wracked with so much guilt after splitting with the gorgeous mother of his two children that he lost 50 pounds. She seems to be doing great, though.

Pictures from SuperiorPics.

Uma Thurman vacationed in St. Tropez with her boyfriend, hotelier André Balazs.

Hello! Magazine has the details:

Uma’s big boobs are probably real, because they’re drooping convincingly.

Thurman has asked Hollywood not to write her off because she’s getting older, and says that actors get better with age.

Pictures [via]

Thanks to yeeeah for alerting me to these pics.

Uma Thurman may be back together with her ex, hotelier Andre Balazs. Thurman confirmed her split from Balazs in early March after a two year relationship. The couple was photographed on St. Barts recently, suggesting that they’re back together:

This explains the Gawker Stalker sighting of the two together in the early morning a week after their split. Maybe Thurman just wanted some alone time, but wasn’t ready to break up yet.

In our first trial of the new Gawker Stalker, which combines Google maps with celebrity sightings sent to Gawker, we found this juicy bit of gossip about Uma’s latest location, poor choice of headwear, and possible reconciliation with her ex, hotelier Andrew Balazs:

Gawker Stalker is clever, but not easy to use. A celebrity’s name and their listed location are both links which launch a new window with a google image search. The sighting report is available by closing the new window to return to Stalker or by clicking the sighting date and time, which are not obvious links. Maybe Gawker hopes to protect celebrities’ privacy with distracting features and bad usability.

Update: Either Gawker has fixed some of the usability issues with Stalker maps or I’m used to it, because it’s easier to use now. The dates no longer link to a google image search and the sighting report is listed beside each celebrity prior to using the map.

Uma Thurman and her boyfriend, hotelier Andre Balazs, have split up after a nearly two-year romance. Balazs runs a hotel empire including celebrity hangouts such as the Mercer in New York and the Chateau Marmont and Standard hotel on LA’s Sunset Strip.

Thurman and Balazs have been dating since 2004. The two purchased a mansion together in Hyde Park, NY in November of 2004, and also shared a loft apartment in SoHo near the Mercer Hotel. Most recently, they spent their Christmas holidays in the French Caribbean.

Thurman may have put off splitting up as long as possible. She seems to feel lost without a partner, and compared being alone to losing a part of herself:

At the 2/26 release party for a pop psychology book, Thurman also admitted that she was what the author categorized as a “Denial” type, and that she prefers to pretend things are fine in a crisis.

The two were photographed on February 22 (shown above) sharing a kiss that was clearly one-sided.