Did they or didn’t they? Reports that Susan Sarandon split from her much-younger boyfriend, Jonathan Bricklin , may actually be nonsense.
The rumor mill, churned by the New York Post Thursday, said that Sarandon, 68, split from her 37-year-old boyfriend over an AOL reality show, Connected . But now he has released a statement setting the record straight on the supposed split with Susan , People reported.
“Susan and I have a lot of respect and great admiration for each other. It’s impossible to concisely characterize our relationship, other than to say that it continues to evolve in new and unexpected ways. She supported my decision to be a part of AOL’s ‘Connected,’ and making this series about my life has brought up real and somewhat unexplored issues, but it didn’t break us up.”
Bricklin – a partial owner of ping pong franchise SPiN – is featured in the Morgan Spurlock-produced documentary. He is one of the six New Yorkers filming their lives for six months as part of the project, and Sarandon evidently appears on camera often.
But apparently Susan isn’t too keen on the idea and has called the cameras invasive, the New York Post claimed. Reports suggest that their split was caught on Bricklin’s Connected camera and Susan Sarandon allegedly told him “‘you’re a cast member, I’m not.’”
A source speculated to E! Online about what may have unraveled – or not unraveled as it turns out – Sarandon’s five-year love affair with her young boyfriend and led to the purported split.
This source said that Bricklin signed on to Connected because he “needed something that was going to be about him”; after five years, “the relationship has been mostly about her.” Susan Sarandon agreed to be part of the show to support him.
“But as filming went on, (Susan) started to get uncomfortable. Even though the filming was supposed to focus on him, producers kept making it about her. They wanted the movie star. They put pressure on him to deliver more with her and she finally put her foot down.”
Connected is set to premiere on AOL March 31. Until then, all celebrity watchers can do is speculate on the truth of Sarandon’s split from Bricklin. However, a source told E! Online that the couple didn’t split at all, but are working it out.
“Right now they’re together. But they both still want to be. The issue is the show: (Susan) wants him to walk away and (Jonathan) doesn’t want to. So we’ll see.”
[Photo Courtesy Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images ]