Because Keanu Reeves is the internet’s boyfriend, it naturally became front page news this week that the internet’s boyfriend has a new girlfriend.

Reeves walked the red carpet at the LACMA Art + Film Gala hand-in-hand with poet and artist Alexandra Grant this week. The couple look blissfully happy together, and why shouldn’t they? To paraphrase Hugh Bonneville in Notting Hill: “That’s nice. Well, you know, anybody saying they want to go out with you is… pretty great. Isn’t it?”

The internet, being the murky, swampy scum-soup that it is, responded differently. Though there were many Reeves (and Grant) fans who celebrated the relationship and noted how happy the couple seemed, others questioned Reeves’ for choosing a partner who looked “too old” for him. Despite the fact that, at 46, she is nine years younger than him. “She looks like his mother,” one troll quipped. Another added: “I hope he finds someone younger so he can have children.” (Read our response to these bridge-dwellers here).

There was also the other corner of the internet who mistook Grant for Helen Mirren because, well, we can only assume because they both are women who have grey hair? 

“Helen Mirren is sexy, Keanu’s lady is sexy,” one tweet read. “But at first glance I really thought she was Helen, and let’s face it Alexandra does look older than 46. Still beautiful and brilliant, but just looks older.”

Hollywood! As comedian Whitney Cummings wrote on Twitter: “The fact that some people are mistaking Keanu Reeves age appropriate girlfriend with Helen Mirren is wild. In Hollywood, if you’re not 24 you might as well be 70.” 

Mirren, herself, doesn’t have time for this ageist nonsense. Speaking on the red carpet at the premiere for her new movie The Good Liar, Mirren told Entertainment Tonight that she found the comparisons “very flattering”.

“That was very flattering on me, you know, because she’s obviously lovely,” Mirren enthused. She added that, given Reeves has previously worked with Mirren’s husband, director Taylor Hackford, she knows Reeves “very well” and counts him as a friend.

“He is just the most adorable, lovely person,” she added. “So she’s a lucky girl and I’m sure that he’s a lucky boy”. 

Well said, Helen. 

Images: Getty