Hookup Rumor du Jour: Rocker Boyfriend for Katy Perry?

Wonderwall, Friday, April 20, 2012, 1:16pm (PDT)

By Kat Giantis

• Did Katy Perry find romance in the desert? While making the scene last weekend at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, Calif., the soon-to-be-ex-Mrs. Russell Brand was snapped holding hands with Florence + the Machine guitarist Rob Ackroyd (see pic below), a move that quickly sparked talk that a romance is a-brewing.

  And it appears that Perry hasn't been shy about labeling the easy-on-the-eyes rocker.

  "Backstage at the Artist Lounge at Coachella last weekend, Katy kept saying her boyfriend was the guitar player for Florence + the Machine," a spy tattles to Life & Style. "She and a bunch of friends were supposed to go see Dr. Dre together, but Katy said she was waiting to watch her boyfriend perform!"

  The pair's caught-on-camera digit-touching came as Katy took in a performance by her BFF, Rihanna, who may have had a wee bit too much fun at the festival.

  The doll-faced popster has yet to comment on the rumblings, but Ackroyd appeared to reference her in an April 17 tweet, enthusing, "Best Coachella ever. Scratch that, best weekend ever. Dre, Snoop, Pac, Nate, Fiddy & KP."

  He also began following Katy on Twitter, which, as everyone knows, must mean they're in lurve. Either way, they could face one insurmountable problem, namely, the fact that Ackroyd says pop music "cuts through me like a knife."

  Perry, who split from Brand in December, was recently (and dubiously) linked to French model Baptiste Giabiconi. Brand also went the eye-candy route and was last seen in the company of a dark-haired Hungarian model.

  "Right now, Katy and Russell are trying to get to the point where they can at least be friends," a source close to the singer recently told Us Weekly.

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