Marcus Mumford Gets Engaged to Carey Mulligan

Marcus Mumford and Carey Mulligan

Dave Hogan/Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty

Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus Mumford and actress Carey Mulligan have become engaged after a whirlwind five-month courtship. Though the two only recently began a romantic relationship, Mulligan and Mumford were actually pen pals as children in London and fell in love after getting back in touch for the first time in years. "They're a great couple," a friend told Us Weekly. "Very sweet."

Photos: Stars and Their Soulmates

The couple first got serious when Mulligan and her friend Jake Gyllenhaal caught a secret Mumford & Sons gig in Nashville on February 7th. "At the end of the night there were just the musicians, Jake, Carey and the Mumford boys," an insider told Us. "We had some pizza and just played music. Jake picked up a guitar and Carey joined in on "Amazing Grace." Marcus and Carey seemed really friendly." A few days later, Mulligan and Mumford caught a secret Arcade Fire show in New York before hitting a private club.

Related
Exclusive Photos: Mumford & Sons Take America

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter