TMZ photographs Jussie Smollett on an all-day LA date with 'Queer Eye' star Karamo Brown

Jussie Smollett has a new someone, and the someone is a famous someone.

TMZ ran the photos on June 30 and put a name to them: Karamo Brown, the culture expert from "Queer Eye." According to the outlet, the two spent Monday together in Los Angeles on what reads less like a coffee and more like a full relationship audition.

The date TMZ caught

Per TMZ, the day started with lunch, and it came with a plus-one: Karamo reportedly brought his mom. Bringing a parent to a paparazzi-adjacent lunch is the romantic equivalent of skipping a few levels. From there the outlet says the pair ran errands around town and capped the day with a hike through Runyon Canyon, the single most photographed patch of dirt in Los Angeles, which is a curious place to take a date you are trying to keep quiet.

The body language did the rest of the talking. TMZ describes the two smiling, chatting nonstop, and sticking close, with Jussie at one point reaching over to playfully cup Karamo's chin. You do not cup a chin on a hike with someone you met at a networking mixer.

The timing is the story

What makes this more than a sighting is when it lands. Smollett called off his engagement to partner Jabari Redd only weeks ago, after the two had been together for nearly three years. Complex and others reported the split, which was described as amicable. So the new pictures arrive while the ink on the last chapter is barely dry, which is the kind of detail that turns a lunch into a headline.

Karamo has spent years on television telling other people how to sort out their lives and their love stories. He hosts his own daytime talk show and remains one of the more recognizable faces from the "Queer Eye" reboot.

One outlet, no comment

Here is the part where I keep it honest. Right now this is a TMZ story and only a TMZ story. No second outlet has matched it, and neither Smollett nor Brown has said a word publicly. The photos are real and TMZ stands behind them, but a paparazzi date is a paparazzi date until someone involved confirms it is more.

So treat it that way. Two famous men were photographed having a very good Monday together. Whether that is a relationship, a setup, or two guys who really like Runyon Canyon, only they know. The chin cup, though, is doing a lot of work.