Sydney Sweeney has had a big year.The White Lotuswas one of the surprise television hits of 2021 and, of course, Euphoriahas been the dominant television series of 2022 so far. She was hilarious and terrifying as Olivia inThe White Lotusand terrifying and pathetic as Cassie this season onEuphoria. She’s the lead in a new film,National Anthem,that’s shooting right now, she’s lined upanother tv series for HBO Max calledThe Players Table, and she’s rumoured to be one of the many young actresses in the running to play Madonna in the upcoming biopic.
It must have been fun working on Sydney’s PR over the last several months. Did you notice how much press she was doing during the second season ofEuphoriabetween talk show appearances and magazine interviews? Her quotes were making headlines regularly and from there the paps started paying more attention to her. There were times over the last couple of months whenEuphoriawas airing that Sydney was getting just as much play, if not more, than Zendaya – and I’m not mad at the strategy. Publicity is all about building on buzz, and Sydney’s team rolled out a good strategy to build her profile. She’s 24 years old. She’s been steadily working her way up for years. Her star has been on a gentle rise up to this point, but this is when an actor’s ascent can suddenly spike up dramatically.
And now…she’s getting married.
Sydney was photographed wearing a big diamond a few days ago andPEOPLEis now confirming that she and her long-time boyfriend Jonathan Davino, 37, a businessman reportedly based in Chicago, are indeed engaged. Sydney smartly has kept the details of her personal life relatively private, but interest in her personal life has naturally increased since she’s become more famous, especially over the last few weeks.
Obviously, it’s a happy time for her personally – and it’s coinciding with her professional boom. As mentioned, Sydney’s career has never been hotter. There is no doubt that she’s coming up more often and more prominently on Hollywood casting lists, especially with the range she’s shown during this recent boost. She can be complicated and sexy (Euphoria), she can be cruel and conniving (The White Lotus), but also wholesome and innocent, or at least deceptively so, as we’re getting a hint of inNational Anthem– her character is called Penny Jo:
This is not unlike the hype that surrounded Florence Pugh (also one of the women in consideration to play Madonna) a couple of years ago and Scarlett Johansson a decade before her. Sydney’s got that “It” buzz. And sometimes, as we have seen so often in show business, “It” buzz can f-ck with your love buzz. Fame is difficult at the best of times, especially for young people. Fame can also wreak havoc in your personal life. This is the first time, really, that Sydney’s personal life has become a headline, because it's the beginning of her celebrity. Will be interesting to see, going forward, how she manages and navigates her own celebrity.
