Owen Wilson's Mystery Girl

In the age of the internet, it's heartening to know that at least one person has no desire to be an instant celebrity.

When the news broke earlier this month that comedic actor Owen Wilson had become a father, movie fans were stunned. They were stunned because they didn’t know Wilson’s girlfriend was pregnant – but also because they didn’t know he had a girlfriend.

So they did what movie fans do in 2011: they went to Google Images, expecting immediate access to any number of pictures of the mother of the movie star’s child. There was only one problem with this strategy: there were no photos. Even now, a couple weeks later, there are only three or four images floating around the internet that purport to show Jade Buell.

Or is it Jade Duell? Or maybe Jade Duall? That’s right – there’s not even any agreement on her name, let alone what she looks like.

In fact, search though they might, the Zoolander star’s fans were able to dig up only a few sketchy details about the mystery woman. The two have known each other about a year. She lives in Hawaii (where she and Wilson reportedly bought a home in an eco-community founded by Woody Harrelson). They met on a flight, where Buell (or Duell or ... take your pick) was working as a federal air marshal. That’s it.

Now, before you go thinking this is a plea to Wilson to share more information about the woman in his life – I think it’s fantastic that the general public knows next to nothing about her. In our internet age, it’s refreshing to come across someone who has no online profile. Considering Wilson is an A-list star, it’s also refreshing to know there are still people who don’t want to walk the red carpet, who have zero interest in being a cog in the Hollywood publicity machine.

In an age in which the line between public and private has been blurred, I am heartened to know at least one person does not want to be an instant celebrity. Nowadays, public confession – revealing the most intimate of secrets – is seen as the one sure path to fame. It’s nice to see Wilson’s partner doesn’t play that game. I hope she never does. I hope she remains a mystery forever.

Considering this is the playful Wilson, of course, there’s also one other possibility: maybe she doesn’t exist at all. Knowing Wilson's mischievous personality, it would be just like him to pull a prank on this scale (you have to admit, the sky marshal thing is a nice touch).

The alternative – that there are certain individuals beyond the reach of the omnipotent Google – is too horrible for avid web users to contemplate. They prefer to go on believing that if the ubiquitous search engine can’t instantly conjure up a wealth of detail about someone, it’s just proof that person was never real in the first place.

This article was originally published in the London Free Press.