It's Back on Again Between Kate Beckinsale and Her 23-Year-Old Boy Toy

Beckinsale 3

Beckinsale 1

Beckinsale 2

SourceKate Beckinsale‘s old flame may have reignited.

The 45-year-old actress was seen out and about with 23-year-old comedian and actor Matt Rife on Wednesday night. The two were heading into Dave Chapelle‘s show in Los Angeles at the Peppermint Night Club along with a friend.

Beckinsale looped her arm around her colorfully-clad friend while wearing a white bandeau top and blue pants. Rife, meanwhile, walked in a step behind the pair in a green v-neck shirt and black pants. …

A source at the time told PEOPLE Beckinsale was “dating and having fun.”

“She has been seeing Matt for the past few weeks,” the source said at the time. “She really seems to like him. She refers to him as an old soul. There is obviously a physical attraction, too. The age difference doesn’t matter to her. Matt is amazing to her.”

Goddammit. You can resent Matt Rife all you want, but that will get you nowhere. Ultimately, you just have to just have to admire him. To accept that sometimes in this life, great things happen to people at a very young age. Alexander was named King of Macedon at age 20 and conquered Asia just a few years later. Michael Jackson was only 6 when “I Want You Back” became a No. 1 hit. Tatum O’Neal won an Oscar when she was 10. And Rife is back on with the most brain-meltingly hot cougar in the world before he’s old enough to rent a car.

I’m pretty sure that when I was 23 I was going through a long stretch of involuntary celibacy, living in my mom’s house, the highlight of my social life was all-day drinkathons after softball for the Weymouth, MA Knights of Columbus and I was still years away from working up the balls to get on stage at an Open Mic Night. But no one every said life was fair. There’s no sense in being bitter about Matt Rife’s embarrasment of riches because that way lies madness. As the baseball managers are fond of saying, he’s out there competing too and sometimes all you can do is tip your cap.

And yes, I’m purposely avoiding talking about the guy in the mumu. Though if the price of getting to hang out with Beckinsale was to dress up in one of Jackson Pollock’s dropcloths and wear a poker dealer’s visor, I would. But I’m here to talk about Kate, who clearly has just decided to go scorched Earth on every woman in her mid-40s alive. It’s been unfair for a couple of decades now, and she is just pressing her advantage. She’s up 100 in the 4th quarter and leaving all her starters on the floor to launch bomb after bomb. And she’s not about to blow a lead like she has by dragging around some guy who isn’t half her age. I’m happy for her. And even though I truly believe she could do better, I respect the hell out of her game. I just hope Rife is a good enough comedian to deserve the blessings that she has bestowed upon him.