Shemar Moore told reporters from TMZ that he decided to ask Anabelle Acosta to be his date to the Grammys in order to squash the rumors that he’s gay.
Reporters caught up with Moore and Acosta at LAX as they returned from the award show in New York City. Acosta immediately rushed ahead to escape the cameras and question, but the S.W.A.T. star hung back to explain their meet-cute.
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“They’re tired of seeing me and mama on the carpet,” Moore joked with the reporter. “They were like… ‘We’re going to call him gay until he brings a pretty girl,’ so I was like alright, you know what? Just to prove I could do it, I wrote her an email, and she hit me back. We got your attention, on the record.”
The reporter pressed Moore for details on how he landed the big date, and he seemed pleased to oblige.
“I told everybody at my job, if you can get me this young lady’s email address — whoever gets it first gets two… hotel and round trip tickets to Vegas. Boy, the search party was on,” he added.
Moore then explained how he courted the Quantico star through his messages. “I went back to early college creative writing days, and I let my fingertips do the typing,” he said. “It was just some cute, like, Notebook s—.”
As for their big night out at the Grammys, Moore bluntly told the reporter it hadn’t gone very far.
“Look: we haven’t kissed, no hanky-panky, we’ve just been homies. We’re homies. It’s just a good story, I’m not lying or fronting,” he said. Acosta stood behind him with her back turned, awaiting her baggage.
“We had a good time at the Grammys, we took some wonderful pictures together,” the actor went on. When asked if he was officially still single, Moore confirmed that he is.
“I’m single and ready to mingle,” he said, “until I get my mother some grandbabies… I’m throwing s— at the wall, we’ll see what sticks.”
The 47-year-old actor was seen leaving with his arm around Acosta, who is 30 years old.