Meryl Streep joined the cast of Only Murders in the Building in season three and returned for the series in season four. Her character Loretta Durkin, a struggling actress, eventually becomes a love interest for Martin Short’s character Oliver Putnam.
 As the relationship blossomed on screen, rumors began to fly off screen suggesting a real-life romance. The pair insist they’re just friends, but it’s hard to deny the wonderful on-screen chemistry and evidence that fans feel suggests something more might be brewing between the co-stars.

Meryl Streep and Martin Short Have Both Endured Loss

Their Relationship Timelines

Meryl Streep, an A-list actor with a record 21 Academy Award nominations and three wins for her best movies, has been acting since the 1970s. Despite how successful she has become, Streep always kept her personal life out of the spotlight. She was dating and lived with actor John Cazale in the 1970s. Sadly, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in 1978.

In the Karina Longworth novel Meryl Streep: Anatomy of an Actor, which was published in 2014, Streep said she never got over Cazale’s death and doesn’t want to get over it. “No matter what you do, the pain is always there in some recess of your mind, and it affects everything that happens afterwards,” she said.

Six months after losing Cazale, Streep married Don Gummer, a sculptor. The pair had four children, who have gone on to become musicians and actors. Fans did not learn until 2023 that Streep and Gummer had reportedly been separated for more than six years. Their last public appearance together was at the Academy Awards in 2018. Thus, the 75-year-old actor has been quietly single for some time.

Canadian comedian, actor, and writer Martin Short, 74, was best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV and the long-running sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live where he created memorable characters like Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley. He went on to appear in movies like Three Amigos, Mars Attacks!, and Father of the Bride, and made appearances on shows like How I Met Your Mother and The Morning Show. He has earned a pair of Primetime Emmy Awards and in 2019, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Short was in a loving and happy marriage with his wife Nancy Dolman from 1980 until her tragic death in 2010 from ovarian cancer. The couple adopted three children together, and Dolman retired from the business where she worked as a comic actor as well to raise the kids while Short continued acting and writing.

Openly devastated by his wife’s death, Short often referred to himself as married long after she was gone, fully dedicated to the 36 years they spent together blissfully in love. Regardless of the fact that Dolman was no longer with him in body, Short presumably never moved on romantically. He has never been romantically linked with anyone else.

Short told Newsweek that he advised his kids at the time of Dolman’s death that he believed “Mom has zoomed into our souls.” He also expressed love for the George Eliot quote, “Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.”

Streep and Short share a bond of both having lost someone they loved to cancer. Both single, working in the same field, and spending more and more time together, it’s no surprise they have grown close.

The Only Murders in the Building Characters’ Chemistry Is Undeniable

Their On-Screen Relationship Timeline

The character of Loretta was introduced in the third season as a struggling actor who auditions to be in Oliver’s play, Death Rattle (later called Death Rattle Dazzle). Despite the lead, Ben’s (Paul Rudd), apprehension, Oliver recognizes something in her and clearly has a physical attraction as well. They begin spending more and more time together and it seems romance is brewing as they connect as if no one else is in the room while sitting and singing at the piano or sharing a wondrous night out on a boat.

When Loretta advises Oliver that she landed a TV role that’s filming the following week in Los Angeles, he initially tries to prevent her from going. But he later has a change of heart, knowing he would be stomping on her dreams. He asks, however, that she perform one scene and sing one song in front of the producers before she goes to help convince them to fund the play.

After securing the funding, Loretta decides to stay and the two share a passionate kiss. However, as their romance progresses further and the pair finally consummate their relationship, Oliver starts to suspect that Loretta could be behind Ben’s death. When he finds a scrapbook with news clippings about Ben in her home, he is terrified he might be right. But he doesn’t tell anyone.

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In a flashback episode dedicated to Loretta’s character, fans learn that Dickie (Jeremy Shamos), Ben’s adopted brother and personal assistant, is Loretta’s biological son. It’s one of the biggest plot twists in Only Murders in the Building. The news clippings she kept were because they included details about Dickie, not Ben.

After finding a letter Loretta wrote to Dickie confessing this truth, Oliver visits her to return the scrapbook and apologize, professing his love. But when Dickie is the next suspect in line, Loretta does the unthinkable and confesses to the murder to save the man who doesn’t yet know she’s his biological mother.

Thankfully, Loretta is cleared when the real killer is discovered, and she and Oliver are free to continue their romance. She eventually takes the job in Los Angeles, leading to a long-distance relationship that spills over to season four.

Loretta is seen sparingly through season four, like when Oliver visits Los Angeles to meet with producers about their movie and when Loretta visits and stays with the group at Charles’ sister Doreen’s (Melissa McCarthy) house. Throwing caution to the wind, the pair decide there’s no reason to wait and get engaged.

The season ends with their beautiful nuptials in the courtyard of the Arconia where they dance the night away. Loretta will be filming in New Zealand, and Oliver is willing to relocate with her. But she realizes he needs his friends and tells him she’s open to an unconventional marriage until they figure things out. He’s set to visit in a few weeks, and the pair are over the moon about their future together.

What’s Fueling the Dating Rumors?

Off-Screen Outings Have Fans Excited

There’s no denying the on-screen chemistry between Meryl Streep and Martin Short. Their scenes involve them looking lovingly into one another’s eyes, embracing, kissing, and exchanging sweet words as though they were destined to be together. In the season four finale after their wedding, Loretta looks at Oliver and asks, “Where have you been?” as though she has been searching for him all her life. It’s easy to interpret this line as having far more meaning than just the context of the scene itself.

Rumors started when the pair arrived together at the 2024 Golden Globes and looked particularly cozy with one another. Later, the co-stars were spotted holding hands and eating dinner together, which could still be interpreted as an innocent act among two close, single friends. Nonetheless, the level of closeness has some people believing there could be more to it.

Despite the chatter, Short has been adamant that the pair aren’t romantically linked. Short told Newsweek in the same aforementioned interview from August 2024 that he and Streep were “just friends,” assuring them it was nothing more. Short further told Bill Maher on his Club Random with Bill Maher podcast “We’re not a couple. We are just very close friends.”

But according to a source that reached out to Closer, the pair were reportedly planning a summer getaway together. “Actions are more powerful than words,” said the unnamed source, “…and these two’s actions say there is something going on. Let them label their ‘special’ relationship whatever they want. The indisputable truth is they are enjoying spending more and more time alone together.”

Martin Short’s Oliver Putnam is the funniest and most dramatic in Only Murders in the Building, giving the series some of its best moments.

Even Only Murders in the Building co-creator John Hoffman told New York Post that the pair “delighted in each other onscreen, off-screen, in every way.”

Adding fuel to the fire and perhaps intentionally stirring the pot is co-star and Short’s close friend and frequent collaborator Steve Martin. He posted a photo to Instagram from a Glamour article of the three of them, placing a circle with an “X” on it over his face as if to imply that he was a third wheel. It could have been just a cheeky joke people are reading too much into, but it seems odd to come at a time when it would obviously stoke rumors.
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In posting about the show, which actors often do for their projects, Streep also chose a sweet photo of her and Short on set, further proving the pair have grown closer both on and off-screen. Once again, however, it could be fans reading more into it than her intention. Streep, for the record, has not commented on the rumors.

Whatever the truth may be, and if this is really a case of life imitating art or just two actors looking for platonic companionship, there’s arguably no potential celebrity couple that fans have “shipped” more than this one. Streep built a wonderful family and career and had a great and lasting marriage that endured for decades. But she’s now single. Short, meanwhile, has been grieving the death of his wife for 14 years, proving his loyalty and love for her and steadfast commitment. He deserves happiness and the chance to move on without believing that doing so would mean forgetting his true love.

Whether they are just friends or romantic partners, Streep and Short are fabulous together in whatever way they choose to be. That includes both on-screen in Only Murders in the Building and off-screen as friends. The chemistry they have built does wonders for their characters, making the pair a believable and lovable couple in the series. Oliver has grown leaps and bounds since meeting and now marrying Loretta, and fans can’t wait to see where the relationship goes for the already confirmed season five.