Fran Drescher Dating Email Inventor? Actress Stepped Out With Shiva Ayyadurai Looking ‘Very Much In Love’

Fran Drescher's got a new man! The 56-year-old actress was spotted with beau Shiva Ayyadurai, at the premiere of "Bridegroom" at the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 15. The couple was "very affectionate," an insider told Us Weekly. At one point, the actress grabbed his hand and pulled him in close. "He [gave] her a kiss," the eyewitness added. "They [were] all smiles and [seemed] very into each other and very much in love."

Shiva is a 49-year-old entrepreneur and scientist who teaches at the prestigious Massachussetts Institute of Technology. He developed a full-scale emulation of a mail system he called "EMAIL" as a high school student in 1978 and copyrighted it in 1982. However, Gizmodo picked apart Ayyadurai's claims in a March 2012 article that referred to him as "the man who pretended to invent email." Email inventor or not, Drescher is happier than ever. She revealed that she loves to cook with the Indian-American scientist and they are currently throwing around ideas for a couple-themed Halloween costume.

As for their age difference, Drescher revealed in November 2012 that dating a younger man doesn't bother her at all -- in fact, she actually prefers it. "[I've] got a lot of energy and a lot of contemporary taste in music or whatever, so I have more in common with guys who are younger," she told HuffPost Live at the time. "I'm trying to keep it within ten years now. Definitely younger."

With her love life already on a good track, the Queens native is currently concentrating on the philanthropic side of her career after TV Land cancelled Happily Divorced earlier this year following its second season. The sitcom was loosely based on Fran's own experiences with love, which she wrote with her ex-husband and high school sweetheart Peter Jacobson. Drescher was married to Peter for 21 years until their divorce in 1999. In 2010, they confirmed that Peter was gay and the two continued to be the best of friends.

Fran, who is a cancer survivor and leading advocate on behalf of women's health, has penned two bestsellers, "Enter Whining" and "Cancer Schmancer." She started a cancer awareness group, the Cancer Schmancer Movement and was appointed a Special Envoy for Women's Health Issues by the US State Department.