hoLLy goSSip

Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon are hitting a rough patch, Star Magazine claims.

The two are said to have started drifting apart ever since the actor flew to London and Morocco for the filming of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Star reports:

“This is his first epic, and his mind is on his work,” a pal of Reese’s tells Star. “They talk on the phone and e-mail, but he’s not ‘there.’ Reese is wondering if this is how it’s going to be between them every time he’s out of the country filming.” The relationship hit such a rough patch that Reese, 32, flew to London for a quick rendezvous with Jake, 27, at The Dorchester hotel in mid-September.

“They really needed to reconnect and remember why they were in a relationship in the first place,” says another source. “While there, they even went house hunting for a place because Jake will be using London as his home base until December. Reese doesn’t like the formality of a hotel for her and her two kids.”

Hopefully, celebrating the holidays together “will get them back on the same page,” adds the source.

Of course, there’s always the likelihood that Star just badly wants to fill up its gossip pages that it has turned a mere conjecture into something fact-sounding. Obviously, being physically apart can put a strain on some coosome twosome, but not necessarily set them off thinking Splitsville.

But then again the “smoke-fire” adage comes to mind. Countdown, anyone?