Romance Rumor du Jour: Katy Perry Puckers Up With John Mayer

By Kat Giantis

Does John Mayer emit some sort of hypnotic musk that paralyzes the flight-or-fight response in a woman's brain? Otherwise, we can't explain why Katy Perry is spending quality time in the presence of a guy whose romantic atrocities include giving a sidewalk press conference to announce he'd dumped Jennifer Aniston; calling ex-girlfriend Jessica Simpson "sexual napalm"; and whining that he was "really humiliated" by Taylor Swift's confessional "Dear John" song.

For the second time in two weeks, Katy, 27, joined John, 34, for a night out on the town. Paparazzi snapped the pair exiting the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening after enjoying what Us Weekly calls a "sexy" dinner date.

An eyewitness says that during their extended meal, the newly Russell Brand-free popster and the unfiltered, logorrhea-plagued crooner were kissing, "holding hands across the table" and laughing, perhaps over Katy's questionable taste in the opposite sex or John's semi-serious inquiry about whether she was wearing her bra that shoots whipped cream.

Perry, fresh from performing in Brazil and looking demure in a white lace dress, kept her head down and a coy (embarrassed?) smile on her face as she rode shotgun with an army surplus store-clad Mayer behind the wheel.

Their outing follows a July 19 rendezvous at Soho House, where they were "affectionate, holding hands and cuddling," according to an Us spy. They reportedly had a follow-up date 24 hours later, meeting at Perry's house for pizza.

Katy was most recently linked to Florence + the Machine guitarist Robert Ackroyd, but she's apparently harbored a crush on John for a while.

Read on for just how long ...