2023 is a big year for Jacob Elordi. The 6-foot-5-inch “Euphoria” actor has been branded this year’s Austin Butler, with his own tortured turn as Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s biopic “Priscilla.”
According to an extensive new GQ profile, the charismatic Australian actor, 26, also is considered the latest heir to the Hot Young Actor crown, which Elordi acknowledges has been historically bestowed upon some of his own favorite old Hollywood icons, including Marlon Brando, James Dean and Steve McQueen.
But as much as Elordi has become “Gen Z’s favorite heartthrob,” he was curiously evasive about his romantic life in his interview with GQ. This is interesting, considering that his romantic life, up until recently, has consisted of a two-year, on-off relationship with Olivia Jade Giannulli, according to People. She’s the influencer who is still best known as the daughter of Lori Loughlin, the disgraced TV star and the face of the 2019 college admissions scandal.
“Now, Elordi finds himself negotiating his own hassles and concerns that come with stardom,” GQ writer Gabriella Paiella said. “People are paying attention to him, looking for cracks in the façade of mystery. They’re invested in his personal relationships … .”
But as Paiella reported, Elordi “shut down any questions about his romantic life with a cheeky ‘but I appreciate you giving me the space.'”
This GQ interview took place in the early fall. Two months earlier, People reported, Elordi was “officially back together with Giannulli.” The actor and Giannulli, 24, enjoyed a romantic getaway to Italy in June, where they were photographed lounging on a beach near Portofino, another People report said. They also were seen going for a swim and riding on a motorcycle together through a picturesque seaside village.
With Elordi’s request for “space,” it appears that he, and his representatives, know that it would be a distraction for him to acknowledge a romance with a woman who was recently embroiled in a national scandal. After all, Elordi is on the cusp of becoming “a bona fide movie star,” as GQ said. In addition to his performance in “Priscilla,” Elordi also stars this awards season in the drama “Saltburn,” and he’s otherwise very much in demand, including by such auteur directors as Paul Schrader.
Unfortunately for Elordi, Giannulli — whether or not she’s still his girlfriend — comes with serious baggage. Her mother and father, designer Mossimo Giannulli, were arrested in 2019 and accused of fraudulently maneuvering to get her and her older sister, Bella, admitted to USC. Loughlin, The “Full House” star, and her husband were among some three dozen wealthy parents who paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in brides to get their children admitted to top U.S. colleges. Loughlin served two months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges, and Mossimo Giannulli served five months.
A photograph of a teenage Giannulli, posing on a rowing machine, became an internet meme. The photo was released by the U.S. Justice Department in its prosecution of her parents. The photo, prosecutors say, was taken to help Giannulli gain admission to USC on the false pretense of being an elite crew team athlete. A legal expert told this news organization in 2020 that prosecutors could have charged Giannulli and her sister in their parents’ schemes. “They were absolutely complicit,” the expert said.
Shortly after news broke that Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli had been arrested, both their daughters withdrew from USC in disgrace. People began to zero in on Olivia Jade Giannulli, regarding her with either sympathy or annoyance when they learned she never had any desire to go to college; she just wanted to make YouTube videos, showing fans how to put on makeup and giving them glimpses of her privileged Hollywood lifestyle.
During a 2020 appearance on Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk, Giannulli addressed the intense backlash she and her family received over the scandal. She insisted she didn’t “deserve pity.” She said, “We messed up. I just want a second chance to be like, ‘I recognize I messed up.'”
In a 2021 episode of her podcast, Conversations with Olivia Jade, Giannulli admitted that she dreaded talking about the scandal out of fear she would be “canceled again,” People reported. Giannulli sought her second chance by competing on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2021. More recently, her “second chance” means continuing to post on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Her photos and images continue to offer makeup and fashion tips and other glimpses of her privileged lifestyle, including her trip to Italy in June.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Elordi is absent from the Italian photos, though that didn’t stop one of Giannulli’s Instagram followers from asking, “Where’s Jacob?” People magazine also reported that Elordi accompanied Giannulli to Idaho in July to visit her parents, where the Giannulli family was enjoying summer vacation at a lake.
So, Elordi and Giannulli were apparently serious enough in July that he joined her on a family vacation. But it remains to be seen whether she’ll begin turning up with him on the red carpet to promote any of his films, now that the SAG-AFTRA strike is over. Given that she merited no mention in Elordi’s GQ profile, such an appearance in his presence isn’t likely.
