It was aPEOPLE exclusive late yesterday: Bill Hader and Anna Kendrick have been “quietly dating” for a year. This, in my professional gossip opinion, is a sanctioned confirmation. PEOPLE is a celebrity-friendly publication. And PEOPLE doesn’t usually run a story without giving a heads-up to celebrities and their reps. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Bill and Anna strategically leaked it to PEOPLE (although that’s possible), but if PEOPLE was tipped off by an independent source, they most likely would have reached out to the publicists and told them that they had it on good authority that their clients were dating and given them an opportunity to comment.

There is no official comment here on the record but there is a source quote that’s quite specific:

“安娜已经悄悄约会比尔一年多了," says the source. "They met years ago. She's hosted Saturday Night Live and they've done a movie together, but they got together well after the movie."

"They are both very private people, and with the pandemic it was easy to keep it quiet," adds the source. "They're both hysterical so they must keep each other laughing all of the time. She's really, really happy."

The point is, this report suggests that while they may not do a pap walk every day like some other celebrities, they might be OK with people knowing that they’re together. And, well, it makes all the sense that they’re together.

This is the kind of celebrity connection that is a whole “yep, I can see that”, right? Maybe that’s why it was surprising – not because of the timing out of nowhere but because now that it’s out there, it seems almost too obvious: well-balanced on fame and celebrity status, both have a quirky, offbeat energy, both are known professionally for their dramatic ability in addition to their comedic skills. And they’re in similar lanes in their public appeal and popularity, too. Bill and Anna have their own respective thirst audiences, but it’s not the same kind of thirst as the thirst that happens over Chris Evans or Scarlett Johansson.

When theonline thirst for Bill got to critical massa couple of years ago, after the success ofBarry, it was like the reveal of a secret – those who had already been thirsting for him were like, yeah, welcome to the party, we’ve been here for a long time. You could say the same of Anna. She’s on the Mary Louise Parker spectrum of celebrity attraction: the smart man’s sex symbol.

As for whether or not there’s any drama, Bill and Anna have known each other a while. They were both in a movie calledThe To Do Listdirected by Maggie Carey, Bill’s ex-wife. Is that weird? Well, the movie came out in 2013. Bill and Maggie’s divorce happened in 2018. That’s more than enough to take the scandal factor out of it, it’s just a matter of how close everyone was and whether or not there’s a close friendship between Anna and Maggie. That said, as it stands on paper, a working connection almost ten years ago resulting in a romance much later doesn’t rank all that high on the scale of Hollywood romantic entanglements. But as Sarah notes, they also made the Disney movieNoelletogether circa late 2017/early 2018. Hader and Carey’s divorce was finalized in spring 2018.

Then again, while Anna’s kept her love life pretty quiet over the years – there hasn’t been much since she was with Edgar Wright, and even that relationship was really under the radar - Bill's last relationship was with Rachel Bilson, after he and Anna filmedNoelle. Bill and Rachel officially ended in July 2020, well before the stated start of his situation with Anna…although… Maria mentioned inJune 2021 in Celebrity Social Mediathat DeuxMoi posted a tip that Bill and Rachel may have been seeing each other again. The thing with DeuxMoi, though, as we know, is that tips are never verified. Anna and Rachel are pretty much the same height. They also have similar builds and hairstyles. Could it be that whoever sent DeuxMoi the tip mistook Anna for Rachel?

And finally, to the longevity potential of Bill and Anna – he has three daughters, ranging in ages from 7 to 12 years old. If they’ve signed off on confirming that they’re dating, presumably their relationship is well-integrated with his family life. I mean…if Bennifer can do it…

But also, considering the ages of Bill’s three girls, their dad is dating the girl fromPitch Perfect!