Charlize Theron – who has been single since splitting from longtime boyfriend love Stuart Townsend last January – has reportedly started dating actor Eric Thal who owns a farm in New York. A friend of Eric told Life and Style magazine: “The two have a lot in common. He’s a farmer who grows all his own vegetables and Charlize grew up on a farm in South Africa. The two like to escape Hollywood and go to his farm in upstate New York.” Eric, 45, played a role opposite Will Smith in Six Degrees of Separation and played Donald Sutherland’s son in the 1994 science-fiction film The Puppet Masters. Charlize, 35, dated actor Craig Bierko and Third Eye Blind lead singer Stephan Jenkins before embarking on a nine-year relationship with Stuart. Though the pair never married, Stuart often spoke about how he considered Charlize his wife. He said: “I didn’t do a church wedding or anything but we consider ourselves husband and wife. I don’t need a certificate or the state or the church to say otherwise.”