Art world It couple Julian Schnabel and Rula Jebreal have split again — and the famed artist has already moved on with a new partner half his age.
After dating for five tempestuous years, Schnabel and Jebreal are over for good, friends say. Artist and filmmaker Schnabel, 60, who won a best director Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” is now seeing 29-year-old Danish supermodel May Andersen, a former Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated model.
The new couple were photographed at the recent Urs Fischer opening at Gagosian Gallery. And on Friday night, Schnabel was seen leaving new Bowery hot spot Bantam hand-in-hand with the leggy blonde.
Schnabel left his second wife after meeting beautiful journalist, screenwriter and “Miral” author Jebreal, 38, in 2007.
Friends say Schnabel and Jebreal had an intense and fiery relationship. They fell in love after meeting in Rome, where she was working as a journalist, and decided to make her book into a film directed by Schnabel. Their romance led to a divorce from his second wife Spanish actress, Olatz López Garmendia.
We reported in March 2011 how Schnabel and Jebreal got into a heated exchange in front of MSNBC “Morning Joe” staff at 30 Rock, where Schnabel was heard shouting in the makeup room at Jebreal that he didn’t like how the stylists had curled her hair. The couple denied “any physical altercation” but said, “We had an argument in a public setting as couples sometimes do.”
They broke up in June last year after a grueling press tour promoting “Miral.” A source told us at the time, “Things became very difficult working on the movie together.” They reconciled last fall and were spotted spending New Year’s Eve on Harbour Island.
But now friends say, “This time, they’re completely over.” Jebreal and reps for Schnabel didn’t get back to us last night.