The cougar is alive and well in Hollywood.
Fortysomething women - for decades thought of either boring, mumsy types or never-been-kissed spinsters - are now a different breed. In pop culture terminology they have evolved into cougars - voracious women prowling after younger men.
And these days, Hollywood is crawling with them. In Tinseltown, if you are an actress of a certain age, the best thing you can do for your career is to be seen with a younger guy.
Demi Moore surely found that out when she first hooked up with Ashton Kutcher, back in 2003. She's now 46, he's 30. They got married four years ago, silencing the naysayers. Even now, she is being held up as the poster child of cougar-dom. Their relationship is apparently thriving; they even Twitter together - and as far as compatibility and intimacy goes, you can't beat that.
So maybe it took a little while for the trend to permeate through the rest of Hollywood, but based on the current dating and marrying patterns of a number of big-name stars, it's here now.
Consider Madonna, queen bee of the pop scene, who at 50 has the lean body of a girl half her age. After ending her marriage to British director Guy Ritchie, she was allegedly involved with brawny sports star Alex Rodriguez, known to all as A-Rod. Apparently that relationship hit the skids a while ago, and Madonna is now in an on-off relationship with hot Brazilian male model Jesus Luz, who, at 22, could pretty much be her son. It seems the two met at a shoot for W magazine a while ago and have had trans-continental couplings ever since - this while Madonna is going all Jolie on us and trying to adopt another African baby.
Also spotted out and about recently have been Academy-award winning actress Marisa Tomei, 44, and reality show actor Logan Marshall-Green, who is about 11 years her junior and nowhere near as famous - although I'm sure that will change now that he's hooked up with her.