Gossip

President Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is secretly dating former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Ahmad Rashad, says the New York Post. Jarrett, a close confidante of the Obama family, has been on several dates with the onetime NFL star turned sportscaster, but wants to keep the relationship under wraps. “They haven’t gone out in public,” a source tells the newspaper. “They are sneaking around.” Rashad has been married four times, and his former wives include Cosby Show actress Phylicia Ayers-Allen and Sale Johnson, the ex-wife of the billionaire heir to Johnson & Johnson. Jarrett has been divorced since 1988.

Rupert Murdoch has reportedly ended all relations with longtime pal Tony Blair after hearing that the former British prime minister had “multiple encounters” with the media mogul’s ex-wife Wendi Deng while they were still married, says the Daily Mail (U.K.). Murdoch, 82, and his 44-year-old third wife finalized their divorce last week. Initial reports cited Deng’s rumored affair with Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt as the cause of the split, but a source close to Murdoch said he finally decided to end things after hearing that Blair and Deng stayed overnight at his Los Angeles pad and had meetings in London and New York—all without his knowledge. A close friend of Blair dismissed the allegations as “the ravings of a sad old man.”

Josh Brolin has entered a rehab facility for alcohol addiction, after a string of embarrassing episodes. The actor son of James Brolin was caught on camera earlier this month getting into a drunken bar fight in a Santa Monica, Calif., bar. He was also videotaped in a separate incident the same weekend, berating a cabdriver at a drive-thru restaurant. The No Country for Old Men star was arrested on Jan. 1 for public intoxication and spent much of the day in jail. He and his wife, Diane Lane, announced their divorce a month later. “He realized he needed help, and is committed to his sobriety,” a source told Us Weekly.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up