Pacey and Joey Reunite On Screen—And Off

Some TV pairings are just too good to leave in the past. Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes proved that point spectacularly at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, June 7, when they premiered their new film Happy Hours—and then casually held hands on the red carpet like no time had passed at all.

Here’s where it gets interesting: the same day Jackson was spotted in NYC hand-in-hand with model Olivia Burgess on a casual stroll through the city. So yes, the timeline is deliciously complicated, which only adds to the intrigue surrounding what’s happening between these two former costars and exes who dominated Dawson’s Creek from 1998 to 2003.

Let’s rewind for context. Jackson, 47, and Holmes, 47, played Pacey Witter and Joey Potter—the frenemies-turned-lovers dynamic that defined an era of teen TV. They actually dated for about a year during the show’s run, which means their on-screen chemistry wasn’t entirely fictional. Fast forward nearly three decades, and Holmes wrote and directed Happy Hours, a film about a couple wrestling with whether their fizzled connection deserves a second chance. She brought Jackson back to star opposite her. The symbolism isn’t subtle.

At the festival, Jackson gushed about the project and his enduring bond with Holmes.“The time that we spent together when we were young is very precious to both of us,”he told a reporter.“And [it] is like one of the core personal and professional relationships in my life.”He praised Holmes for creating“this beautiful space for the two of us to come back and work together and tell a beautiful story.”Holmes responded with equal warmth, saying she takes their friendship and professional relationship“very seriously”and that she wanted“to do right by Josh.”

The romantic subtext practically writes itself. Whether Jackson’s outing with Burgess represents genuine overlap or intentional distance-keeping is anyone’s guess—but the real story here is watching two former lovers collaborate on a project about rekindling lost love. Life imitating art, or art revealing what life might become? Either way, Happy Hours has arrived at precisely the right cultural moment.