Private Equity Bros Are Hollywood's Hottest New Accessory

A curious cultural moment is unfolding at the intersection of celebrity and high finance: A-list stars are increasingly showing up on the arms of private equity dealmakers, generating a wave of tabloid coverage that the beleaguered buyout industry certainly didn't engineer but isn't complaining about. Reese Witherspoon has been photographed yachting in St. Tropez and attending the 'Legally Blonde' prequel premiere with Oliver Haarmann, a founder of Searchlight Capital Partners, which manages over $17 billion in assets. Nicole Kidman was spotted poolside in Portofino with a PE founder. Olivia Rodrigo was photographed picnicking with Julian Croonenberghs. Andy Cohen announced he's dating one too.

The trend lands at an awkward moment for the industry itself. Private equity has been mired in a downturn since 2022, when the Fed began hiking rates and fundraising started to dry up. Firms are now sitting on a backlog of unsold portfolio companies, leaving institutional investors restless. University of Chicago Booth professor Steven Kaplan, who studies PE returns, notes that while the sector has historically outpaced the S&P 500, many recent funds have underperformed — and the cyclical slump isn't over yet.

The cultural explanations for the trend are varied and colorful. Businessman Kevin O'Leary, who has served on Genstar Capital's advisory board and witnessed the Witherspoon-Haarmann dynamic firsthand at a Harvard Business School event, argues that celebrity circles are insular and repetitive, making a dealmaker's world genuinely exciting by contrast. Dating coach Devyn Simone Lock frames it as a pendulum swing — celebrities who've previously dated fellow creatives gravitating toward men with a more linear, analytical mindset. TBPN co-host Jordi Hays pitches PE guys as the modern risk-taker archetype, the new bad boy.

The trend also echoes a broader pop culture moment. A viral TikTok from last summer — in which a creator crooned about wanting a man in finance, trust fund, six-five, blue eyes — turned spreadsheet workers into unlikely romantic icons. Comedian Johnny Hilbrant Partridge, who plays a satirical 'PE Guy' character on social media, argues that private equity has simply absorbed the cultural cachet that investment banking held in the 1980s. Not everyone is convinced the phenomenon is statistically meaningful — one 28-year-old former PE associate pointed out that you could find celebrities dating people from almost any profession — but the concentration this summer has been hard to ignore.