<\/p>\n
\n For months, the sightings have been murky and long-distance in nature, more worthy of Arctic nature photography than gossip pages. In July, they were seen<\/a> walking a dog and then dining at a restaurant in Montreal. And then, a confusing silence, as the \u2014 were they, even? \u2014 new couple retreated into a summer hibernation.\n <\/p>\n \n It was not until September that a California whale-watching trip got the biggest nautical sighting of all, when a passenger snapped an entwined romantic duo atop a yacht from a distance.\n <\/p>\n \n When enhanced, the photographer<\/a> recognized former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau by his thorny Indigenous tattoo<\/a>, though apparently did not recognize the incredibly famous pop star Katy Perry by the fact that they were canoodling on her quite tasteful<\/a> motor yacht, the 78-foot Caravelle.\n <\/p>\n \n They were, it seemed, a something<\/em>.\n <\/p>\n \n It has been a very strange year for both. Trudeau announced he would resign in January<\/a>, leaving Canada to conduct its ongoing conflict with America without him; he was replaced in April.\n <\/p>\n \n That was the same month that Perry resigned the planet, taking a strangely disastrous celebrity trip into the earth\u2019s thermosphere. She, Gayle King and the then Bezos-bride-to-be Lauren S\u00e1nchez<\/a> took Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin rocket<\/a> into the very nearest edge of space.\n <\/p>\n \n For some difficult-to-define reason, this trip made Perry a laughingstock. Was it the cringe moment of her kissing the ground upon return?<\/a> Was it the dated all-woman-crew girl-boss vibes of the trip? Was it that they essentially lit a bunch of money on fire for no good purpose, while it felt like the world was already burning? Or were these ill vibes personal to Perry \u2014 some nefarious Orlando Bloom-led negative PR campaign? For, we would soon learn, Perry was separating from her fianc\u00e9, old Legolas himself.\n <\/p>\n \n Whatever the reason, she went overnight from \u201cpop royalty to America\u2019s favorite punch line.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n It has only been her slow defection northward romantically that has kept her brand out of deep crisis. Trudeau has made her the butt of a kinder sort of joke: \u201cKaty Perry Releases New Single About Superiority Of Canadian Manufacturing,\u201d ribbed The Onion.<\/a> This trade war<\/a> of the heart is paying dividends.\n <\/p>\n \n They are, now, officially out of the closet, and we know because Pop Crave says so: \u201cKaty Perry & Justin Trudeau are officially dating,\u201d the gossip account of record posted over the weekend.\n <\/p>\n