Daily Mail

Hiddy hits the town with his lady in red

He’s the classic leading man. So why’s Tom Hiddleston posing for cheesy beefcake shots, asks JAN MOIR

- By Glen Keogh

HER break-up with DJ Calvin Harris was only weeks ago. But Taylor Swift’s new romance with Night Manager star Tom Hiddleston appears to be going from strength to strength.

Miss Swift, who was dressed for comfort in a pair of flat shoes, was spotted holding hands with the actor outside a concert in Nashville. The pair – who raised eyebrows when they were spotted dancing at this year’s Met Ball, when the singer was still with Harris – were seen kissing and sharing another dance at the show, which featured Taylor’s friend Selena Gomez.

Hiddleston, 5, and the 26-year-old singer were first spotted kissing at Taylor’s Rhode Island home. Hiddleston, who is rumoured to be in line to play James Bond, was then seen boarding the singer’s private jet.

Oh Tom, what have you gone and done? Just a few short days ago, just a bucket of tears ago, just a broken heartbeat ago, Tom hiddleston was everyone’s darling.

The charming old Etonian was on a roll. And no wonder. his star turn in the hit television series The Night manager had proved him to be a classic leading man of the old school. So much so, that he has been hotly tipped to be the new James Bond.

on screen and off, 35-year-old Tom was a proper English gentleman, clever, discreet and enigmatic. he wore tweed. he drank vintage champagne. And when asked about girlfriend­s, he was the soul of discretion.

‘Some things have to remain sacred. You could write that I’m single. There’s no ring on this finger,’ he would say. Such style, such grace. And now so much egg on that big, handsome face.

For in the space of a week we have entered some kind of crazy, hideous Tomageddon that has found our debonair idol kissing a pop star and pouting in his underpants like a late entrant in a suburban mr Puniverse contest.

In the estimation of many devoted fans, hiddleston has gone from classy hero to damn near zero, from prime film star fillet to double cheesy cheeseburg­er with extra cheese on the side. What on earth has happened to him?

First of all he was photograph­ed kissing the singer Taylor Swift on some rocks near her seaside mansion on America’s Rhode Island. Tom and Taylor have fallen in love, people, and they seem to want the world to know all about it.

They took selfies! They snogged like a pair of tortoises gumming a lettuce leaf. As the Atlantic breeze began to take its toll, he put his quilted jacket around her shivering shoulders; the kind of Prince Charming gesture we would at least expect from a proto-007.

Then they capered for the camera in a way that had many suggesting the whole thing was as staged as a Christmas pantomime.

It certainly looked like a movie; perhaps the last scene in the kind of tear jerker where the boyfriend takes his dying girlfriend to look at the ocean one last time. or maybe the kind of advert in a glossy magazine that would have these words underneath: ‘You’re In Love, But You’re Never Too Young To Think About Your Pension’.

Even the rocks looked as if they had been styled, perhaps by Giorgio Armani himself. WHATEVER the truth of the matter, we must now accept that Tom has been completely Taylorised — which is the exact opposite of being vaporised — with added sequins and stardust. And that is a worry.

Did he not at least take the precaution of studying the lyrics to some of Swift’s arch and clever, millionsel­ling pop songs? ‘ Grab your passport and my hand, I can make the bad guys good for a weekend,’ as she sings in Blank Space, wondering if her new love is ‘ my next mistake’.

Well someone is making a terrible mistake, but I suspect it is not her.

Following on from the Kissing on The Rocks spectacula­r, Tom flew back to New York on Taylor’s private jet.

The next day he was taken from her manhattan apartment to the gym in one of her private cars by one of her private drivers.

In between these appointmen­ts, he was no doubt busy ironing her tights and making sure her nail polish bottles were in colour coordinate­d order in the bathroom.

Come on, hiddy! This is simply not good enough. Already Tom looks like a kept man, a rich woman’s plaything, and that is never a good look for an ambitious actor with both eyes on hollywood Big Time. To make matters worse — much, much worse — hiddleston then posed in his underpants for an arty American publicatio­n called W magazine.

The photograph­s show him smoulderin­g like a wet pancake beside a rumpled bed. ‘oooh, ooh look at me,’ his eyes seem to beg. ‘Aren’t I sexy?!’ In some shots he actually lies on the bed like a very posh and rather proper porn star, with his frog-shaped legs — giant thighs, toothpick ankles — akimbo. It’s just too awful for words.

Tom had the decency to look slightly embarrasse­d, as well he might. Not least of all because he was wearing a pair of white boxers that looked freshly peeled from an Asda, poly-cotton, budget range ten-pack. Ladies, worst of all was the fact that his pants were IRONED. Quite possibly even starched.

The question we have to ask ourselves is this; does James Bond wear pants like that? No, he does not. he wears La Perla budgie smugglers or something with a bit of superspy stretch for those allaction moments. Not something that an elderly gent might wear to a prostate exam.

honestly. The underpants spread is the kind of stunt you would expect the runt of a boyband litter to attempt in a bid to get to sing lead vocals on the new single. Not someone as fabulous as our Tom!

Not the man that Stephen Spielberg cast in War horse because he reminded him of a young Errol Flynn.

Not the man who plays the villainous Loki Laufeyson in the Thor action films and appeared as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen’s film, midnight In Paris. All this is making hiddleston — a naturally classy guy — look desperate and more than a little silly.

The race may well be on to find the new James Bond, but if anything, all this nonsense is scuppering his chances, not increasing them. Whoever is advising hiddleston should advise him to keep a lower profile — or is it already too late?

one can see how hiddleston and Swift would be attracted to each other. Both are at the top of their respective fields — and Taylor always likes to date the hottest guys of the moment.

They met at a dinner at Anna Wintour’s house, they danced together at the met Ball and he sent her flowers when she split up with Calvin harris, her boyfriend of 15 months.

The Dumfries- born DJ didn’t stand a chance against the forcefield of the elegant actor.

After all, he is a proper English gentleman, the new David Niven, someone who knows how to wear a suit and woo a lady. HE HAS a double first in Classics from Cambridge, he is a dazzling dancer and an unabashed romantic who speaks several languages fluently and can recite poetry and reams of Shakespear­e at will.

Until now, he has been impossible to resist, the kind of romantic whose sex appeal was kept on a leash under sharp suiting and shy smiles. And now this. hiddy hindsight is a wonderful thing. however, if someone had dared to suggest last week that in the space of a few days we would be seeing Tom hiddleston snog a blonde pop star in a seemingly staged photo shoot which was then plastered all over the tabloids, then zoom around America on private jets before posing in a pair of unspeakabl­e underpants in a hotel bedroom, then I would have suggested they stopped taking whatever hallucinog­enics they were ingesting by the handful.

Now Tom seems mere hours away from holding up signs saying ‘vote me For Bond’ and ‘Is Everybody Still Looking?’

Perhaps it was too good to be true. Perhaps He was just too good to be true. Right now it feels like we have all been on a onenight stand with a charming rogue who turned out to be a monster.

Tom, it’s time to wake up from this nightmare. It’s not too late to go back to how things were. Just please put your trousers on and behave.

And I never thought I’d write that sentence.

 ??  ?? Hand in hand: Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston in Nashville last night
Hand in hand: Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston in Nashville last night
 ??  ?? He’s with me: Taylor Swift looks pleased with herself as she strolls with Tom Hiddleston Budding relationsh­ip: The actor and singer kept each other close
He’s with me: Taylor Swift looks pleased with herself as she strolls with Tom Hiddleston Budding relationsh­ip: The actor and singer kept each other close
 ??  ?? Budget boxers, Tom? Hiddleston’s awkward pose. Inset: Gathering legions of fans in The Night Manager
Budget boxers, Tom? Hiddleston’s awkward pose. Inset: Gathering legions of fans in The Night Manager
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