You don’t need to save the last dance, just save the date, as actress Julia Stiles recently announced her engagement to camera assistant Preston J. Cook. The couple met on the set of Julia’s 2015 release Go with Me (don’t worry, I had to Google it myself), co-starring Ray Liotta, Anthony Hopkins and Lochlyn Munro (my personal favorite “Hey! It’s that guy!” from pretty much every comedy in the 90s.) The couple got engaged on Christmas Eve at a private residence in Isla Grande, Colombia.
The 34-year-old actress showed off her ring in a photo on Instagram on Monday with the caption “Best Christmas Ever!” Side note: someone needs to tell Preston that the first three letters of “manicure” are M-A-N. Just saying.
Preston’s work is spotlighted in the new Leonardo DiCaprio film The Revenant, and Julia is currently working on the latest (untitled) Bourne sequel with Matt Damon.
I know the ring isn’t big by celebrity standards, but I think it’s lovely. Who needs a big, honking rock anyway? Congrats Julia and Preston!
Photo credit: WENN.com
Damn is the guy she is marrying a Giant.. His hands are HUGE.
maybe that is what he could afford.
Love the fact that she probably didn’t buy her own ring for him to give her like so many celebrity women do. That always makes me cringe. She is confident, happy and content with what he gave her. She gets what’s important.
I’m happy for her. The ring is pretty and tasteful. I find that so much more attractive then people that put themselves in deep debt to pretend they can afford those giant rocks.
Yes!! the guy might have actually chosen and bought the ring!
That’s what I was thinking, “at least she didn’t have to buy herself an engagement ring, just to show off a zillion carats”. He took care of it, and that’s what he can afford… and it’s pretty.
What’s wrong with paying for the ring if you can afford it, and it’s what you want? Girl Power!
Huge rings aren’t what’s expensive, clean good grade diamonds are. You can have a 1.5 carat thats D clarity VVSI1 super bright ring and it can cost you $30k. It’s all about quality not quantity, and her diamond looks really clean.
This. My center stone is flawless and thank God it was given to us. We would have never afforded a ring like I have at 25!
Exactly. Clarity, color and cut > carat when it comes to diamonds. I’ll take my high grade sparkling 1.5 carat over a 5 carat cloudy diamond any day.
@Lisa2, who wrote: “Damn is the guy she is marrying a Giant.. His hands are HUGE. ”
LOL! That was my ‘other’ argument (along with my “A camera man saw him looking at her butt and ‘that’ constitutes an affair? Are you kidding me???” argument) in the whole Michael C. Hall shite. Julia has ‘always’ liked BIG men who are 6′ 2″ or taller. Michael C. Hall is 5’10” and just isn’t her type. But I digress …
Congratulations, Julia! I’m so happy for you! 🙂
She’s the one that had an affair with Micheal that broke up his marriage, (with his willing participation) right? Or was it another woman?
@LadyD – If I remember correctly, they had an affair while Julia was guest staring on Dexter for one season. He was married to the actress who played his sister (can’t remember her real name) at the time and I think it was just after he went through cancer treatment.
@Lady D and @Woodstock …
Did someone publish proof that Julia and Michael had an affair? And if so, could you please post the link? Did one of them admit it at some point? Or did some gossip maven simply run with a rumor without waiting for verification?
http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/08/michael-c-hall-new-girlfriend-revealed-dexter-star-vanessa-abrue/
Congratulations to her! I love the ring.
I’m not fussed about the man nails. But then it like rugged guys so maybe that’s just me.
I like somewhere in between. It bothers me that his nails look jagged and dirty. But I hate it when men get manicures. I like them short, clean and neat, I guess. Nails, that is.
It bothers me too. When we saw a lot of Tom Hanks’ nails in You’ve Got Mail, they didn’t look great either. Men have to draw their own fine line between healthy self-care and what some might see as too much, I guess.
He is a working guy, and maybe he tinkers with cars. Reminds me of mechanics, who have a tough time keeping their hands looking clean.
True, but he was on vacation. About to propose. Ah well, this is so trivial!
My significant other works in construction… even when his hands are clean they are still a mess! It’s not my favourite thing, but what can ya do when day in day out you abuse your hands working in unfavourable outdoor conditions (think -30 winters in Canada conditions).
Even a holiday manicure (Hahahahahahaha! – WTF is that anyway?!?!?!) won’t fix them up to anything reasonable.
I think the ring is very pretty. Congratulations!
I think the ring is tasteful and beautiful and way more practical than the knuckle dusters most celebs wear. It almost looks blue-ish tinged in the pic, wonder if it’s definitely a diamond? I like her, and am glad she has found happiness with a low key industry guy. I also covet her wrap coat.
Oh and I’m not picky about “man”icures BUT those nails are gross. I can’t deal with dirty scratchy man hands!
That coat. I need it!
I damn near hate everything else she is wearing, but all is right in the world when it’s covered by that coat!
I love the ring. It will be easy to wear rather than the huge ones I see hanging awkwardly off the fingers of celebrities looking bulky and uncomfortable. As for the nails, I’m sure he’ll get that taken care of once they’re back home. They’re short and rugged looking from living life rather than spending it in a nail salon. Nothing looks worse to me than long nails on a man.
Thisi is by far the prettiest celebrity engagement ring I can think of. I hate flashy rings ( or flashy jewellery in general), so this is perfect. I also like that the band is golden.
I agree with you, I’m really liking the yellow gold band.
When I saw the ring on another site, I just thought it was a pretty ring. Sounds like she’s happy, so great for them.
Oh god – I wish my husbands hands looked as good as his haha. Guess that’s what happens when you marry a plumber who has to work in crawl spaces on a lot of small town residential jobs with ancient plumbing systems.
I love her ring though – so pretty. I like the bezel style even though mines about as opposite as you can get being a cathedral setting.
I am married to a plumber too and his hands look worse than this!
They’re pretty much either always callused, stained, or cut up. Even with the tough scrub stuff, there’s only so much you can do when you’re working with your hands 40 hours a week, I guess. I still prefer it to manicured looking man hands because it’s what I’m used to.
She always brings such intelligence to her performances. Love her look, too, and the ring.
Much happiness to Julia!
the nails will haunt me the rest of today. as for the ring- julia’s not petite by any means, so the diamond probably IS on the larger side. I love the simple setting.
Coat envy. So much coat envy. Congrats to them both.
+1
The ring is pretty, but that coat is amazing.
I love her. My 90s girl crush!
Love the ring, I think those giant diamond rings looks so tacky.
I like the ring alot.
It’s a subtle bevel set ring with what looks like is a 2 carat round. And is that rose gold too? Love. I’m usually a white metal dame, but rose gold has definitely grown on me in a big way.
But what I like more is that she landed in a stable mature relationship after that Dexter debacle.
I feel the same, I did kind of wonder what the hay was up there, but then again Michael C.Hall was just so freaking charismatic in that role, if I was on set with him all day I don’t know if I could have resisted the sexy serial killer force field either!
Why are people so sure the rumors are true? From all reports that marriage was imploding and needed no outside force to break them up. Jennifer and Michael also remained friendly after the divorce. People even thought they might be getting back together because they were seen hanging out and supporting each other’s projects.
Julia denied it btw. And what was the evidence presented for an affair beside hearsay – that she was seen crying at the airport? Please.
I wasn’t saying I definitely believed it, just that I could conceivably find Dexter irresistible. Sheesh.
omg those nails eww. that’s all i got from this btw.
Thank you. That’s the first thing I saw! Dirty nails bother me.
The ring is cute. It fits her low-key style
His nails are perfectly fine.
Congrats to Julia on the engagement. She doesn’t appear superficial so I hope it lasts!
I am going to cry. That ring is so small and really sweet. Oh… I am suck a big wuss when it come to simple sweet thing and I wish them a very happy and prosperous marriage.
Kiki, you’re adorably sweet and I adore it! 🙂
Congrats to Julia, very pretty ring!
I feel a bit bad for saying this since she seems like a very sweet and down-to-earth person, but I’m always surprised to see she’s still getting work.
Her face looks really different, I guess it’s been a few years since I’ve seen her but it feels a bit tweaky…
Love the ring!
I will always remember Julia in 10 Things I Hate About You. Luv it!!!!!
….
But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you
not even close
not even a little bit
not even at all.
*sniff*
I love that movie..Julia was my spirit animal..and Heath..oh Heath..
Congratulations to the couple. Love the simple ring.
Re his nails..she obviously feels secure enough to post the pic without crappy photoshop and not to give a hoot about some chipped nail..way to go Julia
Love the ring. Very tasteful. It might be bigger than it looks too because it is being dwarfed by the most giant man hand I have seen in a while.
I saw 10 Things again over the weekend!! She’s absolutely fantastic in it. Congrats to both of them!!!
Not a fan of yellow gold, but it is pretty and nice that it’s not humongous.
I’m OK with not overly manicured nails on a guy, but if you’re going to take an engagement photo like that at least make sure they’re clean!
I love the ring. I’ll say this, unless an engagement ring is truly hideous, to me, a woman will always love the ring b/c HE gave it to her, regardless of what their personal taste is. My ring is not something that I would have ever picked out (by no means ugly but more ornate than what I usually lean towards) but the fact that he painstakingly choose it FOR ME makes me love it all that much more. I always think that whenever people comment on women’s rings–those rings symbolize so much more than a pretty shiny thing to many women.
The ring is beautiful and is probably a really good diamond which a lot of time the big ones of the clisters (which I know Julia isn’t) aren’t so they obviously went for quality.
Not to mention since I didn’t even know she was dating I’m going with this relationship matters and isn’t for show so probably didn’t feel the need for a showy ring.
Please note if you can afford a high quality large diamond (not talking 10 carrots) then I don’t think anything is wrong with it but I don’t think it’s necessary it’s what you want. Just whatever you get make sure the stone is good.
I love her since the ‘Save the last dance’ time!! Anyway I much prefer a rock that size than those huge tacky ones.
A lovely setting but to me engagement rings are still a waste.
Where I am from there are no engagement rings at all, only a simple gold wedding band.
It is far more practical.
I am at a stage where I don’t see a point of the wedding rings at all.
If you like jewelry, and can afford it, sure , buy it. But don’t feed the whole wedding industry monster. It is out of control as it is.
Love the ring, love her. I know there were rumors of shadiness between her and Michael C. Hall on the Dexter set, but nothing could ever dampen my love for the Stiles! I hope she and her future husband have a long, happy marriage!
@Tealily, who wrote: “Love the ring, love her. I know there were rumors of shadiness between her and Michael C. Hall on the Dexter set, but nothing could ever dampen my love for the Stiles!”
There was never anything except rumors. The rumor was only reported on ‘one’ gossip column (funny that the other ‘gossip mavens’ remained silent) and ‘that’ report–verbatim–spread like wildfire across the Internet. What proof did the gossip columnist who started the rumor have? A camera man on the “Dexter” set saw Michael C. Hall looking at Julia’s butt, and someone supposedly saw Michael and Julia at a Halloween party in NYC (while they were still filming the last episodes of season 5 in Long Beach, CA) yet, no one at the party (not even the person who supposedly saw them there) bothered to take a cell phone picture … nor were there ever any pictures of them leaving-arriving at an airport in LA or NYC.
A young production assistant at Showtime even came out a year later and said that she and Michael C. Hall were fooling around during that time that everyone thought he was fooling around with Julia Stiles. This was discounted as a ploy to deflect from the alleged affair by the gossip columnist who started the rumor (if you don’t want to read the entire article below, just skip to the relevant part near the bottom).
http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/08/michael-c-hall-new-girlfriend-revealed-dexter-star-vanessa-abrue/
Jennifer filed for divorce five days after the season 5 finale and three days after the gossip columnist printed the rumor. The divorce papers revealed that Jennifer listed a separation date in early August ‘before’ the season 5 fall premiere date. This was discounted as a ploy by the gossip columnist who started the rumor (because she had stated that the alleged affair destroyed the marriage), who said Michael C. Hall probably paid Jennifer to say they separated at an earlier date in order to deflect from the alleged affair.
Aw, congrats to the happy couple. I’ve always liked her and that ring is super pretty. But yeah, lets talk about that coat. It looks so stylish yet comfy. Want.
Methinks she might be pregnant, as well.
An example of an actress who is relatively private. She has worked consistently for many years and stayed out of the tabloids. Other examples – Kirstin Dunst, Elizabeth Banks.
Is the pic in the header more recent than the ones in the body of the article? The latter actually look like Julia, the header really doesn’t! Congrats to the happy couple!
gorgeous ring!!!!
Love the ring. He guy’s nails don’t bother me, but then my hubby is part Neanderthal, so I guess I go for the rugged type…
Now let’s talk about her coat. I really want her coat!!!
Nice ring definitely. I can’t stand those big gaudy ones.
It’s nice. I like it. And it’s much pretty than a lot of those austentatious door knobs some people sport.
Maybe that’s all they could afford?
I mean, her career hasn’t been that hot in years, and its not exactly like he’s well known.
The ring is beautiful. I love bezel sets, even though they make a stone look a bit smaller than it really is. The neil lane look-alikes & halo sets don’t look nearly as sophisticated or classic to me as a simple and elegant solitaire.
When does her face become so…heavy? She was never conventionally stunning but now she looks like she coukd play the main character in “Misery”, but with designer clothes.