Strange Things About Rosario Dawson And Cory Booker's Relationship

They say you shouldn't talk politics on the first date. We assume actress Rosario Dawson and New Jersey senator Cory Booker didn't abide by that rule. We're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit here — Dawson and Booker are dating. That's a pairing we never imagined, but much like life in Jurassic Park, love finds a way.

And since they've gone public with their relationship, they can't seem to stop talking about each other. "She keeps me grounded. She doesn't let me take myself too seriously," Booker told Cosmopolitan in 2019 about Dawson. "She thinks I'm really corny, but she thinks it's really adorable. But we just definitely have personalities I think that resonate like a symphony and not a cacophony, so I feel very, very lucky. I don't know if that has anything to do with our stars or just the fact that I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet Earth." Tell your man to step up his game, ladies. Booker is embarrassing him. 

As for Dawson, it seems she's finally found the one. She told The Washington Post, "But for the first time, I feel like I have someone in the center of the storm with me." The lovefest is real, people. But what else is going on? Let's go down the ballot to find some strange things about Rosario Dawson and Cory Booker's relationship.

Buckle up. We're going to ask you to do some math here. In January 2019 (per Page Six), Cory Booker and Rosario Dawson were first spotted together while catching a movie in New York City. The next month, Booker famously told The Breakfast Club, "I got a boo." But the boo was unnamed. A month after that, Dawson confirmed to TMZ that she was in a relationship with Booker. "I am just grateful to be with someone that I respect and love and admire so much," she told the outlet.

We understand that it's possible to fall in love in two months, but that seems a little fast. So was their movie date their first date? Not so much. In an Instagram post dated October 13, 2019, Dawson posted a photo of herself and Booker with the caption, "Happy anniversary my love." She continued, "It's been an incredible rotation around the sun. I look forward to exploring more of this life journey with you."

So if your calculators are still out, this means they dated for a solid three months before going public. Granted, it's not exactly strange for a famous couple to delay sharing their love with the masses, but in this day and age, that's almost a superhuman feat. Respect.

When Cory Booker first met Rosario Dawson at a 2018 fundraiser for Ben Jealous' Maryland gubernatorial campaign, the sparks weren't flying. "There was no love connection there," Booker told The Washington Post. "I think it was the places of life we were in. I was probably dating somebody when we first met."

However, when they ran into each other later that year, Cupid was also in attendance. "I mean, gosh, that night we talked for hours and hours," Booker said but revealed he was nervous about asking for her number. "I think I said something really stupid like, 'Uh, how would I get in touch with you?' And she mercifully said something like, 'Oh, you want my phone number?' And my insides were like, 'Hell, yeah!'" he explained.

Dawson confirmed that Booker "a million and one percent" had no game, but that didn't matter. He was too adorkable to resist. "He's so charming and so confident and so capable, but it's not like that translates to being some super-smooth kind of guy," Dawson explained. "That's not his style. What wins me over with him is definitely the dad jokes."

How quickly things can change. Rosario Dawson's full support for a Cory Booker presidency might come as a shock to some because, in 2016, the Rent actress was an outspoken and ardent supporter of Bernie Sanders. "We don't need incremental change, we need bold leadership, and that is what Bernie Sanders brings to the conversation," Dawson said at a 2016 Sanders rally in 2016 (via The Washington Post).

She even took shots at former President Barack Obama, who Booker has consistently and unabashedly praised. "They all organized and they thought that they had their guy, their one person. But within two months of him becoming president, people lost faith," Dawson said of Obama at a 2016 Sanders town hall event in Harlem (via Mashable). Addressing the resurgence of Republican wins in subsequent mid-term elections, Dawson even laid some of the blame at Obama's feet for failing to "continue with the momentum that got him there."

Clearly, Sanders and Booker's politics have noticeable differences — with the latter hewing much closer to Obama in terms of progressive outreach — but make no mistake; Booker is Dawson's man and choice for Commander-In-Chief for 2020.

Speaking at Variety's Toronto Film Festival studio in Sept. 2019, Dawson gushed over her new beau and compared him to the fictional senator she's dating in her new series Briarpatch. "I feel like I'm dating Captain America, I mean he's just such an amazing, brilliant, kind, empathetic, beautiful, loving human being — Cory — and then this character has that as his sort of face," she said. "They could not be more different characters."

Although she left no doubt about how she felt about Booker, she stopped short of publicly endorsing him. "Regardless of Cory, I wasn't going to be behind any particular candidate this election," she said. "I really just want to be behind the electorate."

That quote received most of the media's attention, leaving many to question who the Sin City star would be endorsing for the 2020 election. That all changed two days after her comments to Variety. "For the record I, of course, endorse @CoryBooker," Dawson emphatically tweeted. She then seemingly addressing the Variety piece directly: "Anyone writing otherwise clearly hasn't been paying attention."

When you first heard Cory Booker and Rosario Dawson were dating, you couldn't believe it, right? You weren't alone. During an April 2019 appearance on Good Day New York, the New Jersey senator pushed back on claims that their relationship was fake or a political prop. 

"I'm in love," Booker said on the show (via Yahoo!). "It's a great nurturing and empowering relationship; I'm blessed to be dating her." He continued, "Let's just put it this way, Rosario's making me dream even bigger dreams that have nothing to do with my professional life, but to do with what is really about being happy." Booker went even further, stating publicly that this is the relationship he hopes to enjoy for the long haul. "She and I are not trying to put this through a political lens," he explained. "We're just two people in love trying to build a great relationship every single day because I'll tell you what — in my best-case scenario, I get elected to president, I serve two terms. That's just 10 years, nine years of my life. What I'm trying to create with Rosario is something that will last forever."

Booker clearly found the sweetest way to push back on those nasty rumors, but it's still a little strange for him to have verbally air out what is essentially a diary entry to do that, right? 

During the 2020 CNN/New York Times primary debate on Oct. 16, 2019, Cory Booker stayed mostly in the background, with his most significant moment coming when he pushed back on the in-fighting on stage. "Tearing each other down because we have a different plan is unacceptable," he said (via The New York Times).

After the debate, Booker spoke to CNN's John Berman and revealed Dawson offered a bit of "constructive criticism." Although he called Dawson "the best," Booker added, "Look, she wants more of me. ... "She says I'm at my best when I show my humor. Let people feel my spirit. Because the issues are really important but at the end of the day, this country needs someone who brings a spirit of civility and spirit of, frankly, unity."

At the time of this writing, Booker is polling in the low single digits, so we're guessing Dawson might be sharpening her pencil for a fresh round of notes. 

When a famous actress and a presidential candidate date, you can expect constant media coverage. For better or worse, that's how things work. And since the two are such busy people who are required to attend high-profile events on which their careers depend, there will sometimes be a scheduling issue if they ask the other to be their +1.

Well, Rosario Dawson is tired of the double standard that comes along with that. "He's hoping to make the Zombieland premiere, but I'm curious to see, if he doesn't, if he's going to get the same amount of press being like 'why aren't you supporting your woman,'" she told Variety in September 2019. "I've been getting all this press like 'Why aren't you at your man's side' when I've made it really clear that it's okay to be a working mom." (Dawson has a teenage daughter, Lola, who she adopted in 2014, per Us Weekly.) 

As it turns out, Booker was indeed able to make the premiere, and she returned the favor five days later by attending the fourth Democratic debate. The moral of this story? If you ever date Rosario Dawson or Cory Booker, you'll have to leave the house a lot.

Who needs a book on tape when you are dating Cory Booker? According to a profile of Rosario Dawson in The Washington Post, Booker "just finished reading David Benioff's World War II novel 'City of Thieves' to her over the phone." A World War II novel at bedtime? The ladies love it.

The book, written by one of the showrunners of Game of Thrones, is a fictional account of the siege of Leningrad. In their 2008 review, The Guardian described the 258-page tome as follows: "Lev, a 17-year-old, chess-playing virgin, and Kolya, a charismatic ladies' man, are given five days by a Red Army colonel to find a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding cake. Their road trip into a landscape gripped by near-starvation glints with heart-stopping sights." Sounds interesting, but ... romantic? Not so much. 

Besides enjoying the smooth sounds of Booker reading her a novel, Dawson revealed that he also sends her music every morning and the pair FaceTime at least twice a day. "Look, both of us, you know, we've had relationships," says Booker, "but I'm not sure if I've ever fully given myself over to a relationship as much as I have with her and allowed myself to be as vulnerable." Awww.

It turns out Cory Booker has a thing for celebrity women. During a March 2019 appearance on The Wendy Williams Show, legendary journalist Katie Couric revealed that she and Booker went on a blind date together at a New York Giants game "a long time ago" when the subject of Booker and Dawson's romance came up. 

"Wow, this just in!" Couric laughingly told the shocked audience. "He was really nice," she explained. "Did we kiss?" she teased. "No, we did not kiss." She added, "He's an incredible person ... so smart." Couric was blushing during the exchange with Williams, but she is happy for the new couple and had nothing but praise for Dawson.

"Look how beautiful she is," Couric said. "She's also very politically active, she's spoken out about gender equality, she cares deeply about stopping domestic violence — she is a very cool woman," she continued. "I like her." When asked by Williams if she thought Dawson would make a good first lady, Couric replied, "Why not? Yeah." That sounds like a ringing endorsement, huh? 

While Cory Booker doesn't have any current scandals hurting his campaign, he might have to face questions over one involving his girlfriend. According to an October 21, 2019, report by NBC News, the Daredevil actress and her family were hit with a lawsuit by a transgender man who alleges "transphobic harassment and violent abuse." 

According to the suit, Dedrek Finley claims he was hired by the Dawson family to "renovate and remodel Rosario's personal residence." After coming out to the Dawson family as transgender, Finley claims they "misgendered him multiple times each day" and "acted with deliberate indifference and did nothing to correct the situation." When Finley complained, Rosario allegedly told him, "You're a grown woman."

Finley additionally claims the Dawson family forced him to move out of a property they rented for him, and when he refused the eviction because he believed they had no grounds to do so, the family physically assaulted him. Dawson's mother allegedly "dragged Finley by his arm out of a window" and began punching him while shouting transphobic slurs. Finley alleges that Dawson sat on top of him and "actively restraining him while he was on the ground" so her mother could continue attacking him. Finley was granted a temporary restraining order but is ready to resolve the matter. "He just wants to get some sort of compensation, so he can get back on track with his life so he can put this incident behind him," his lawyer Tasha Alyssa Hill said.