Can Charlize tame Hollywood bad boy?

The chemistry between Charlize Theron and new beau Sean Penn is getting more serious by each paparazzi snap. But the question is: for how long can our meisie tame one of Hollywood's bad boys?

The new couple took Theron's son, Jackson, and her two rescue dogs for a beach stroll on Monday, according to the UK's Daily Mail.

In the photographs, Penn is seen doting on the toddler, who is wearing a red jersey.

The two actors look every inch a lovesick couple, stealing kisses while Jackson plays. In another snap, Penn has his hand affectionately placed on 38-year-old Theron's lower back.

A day earlier, they were spotted leaving Pavilions in Malibu after a grocery shopping spree.

But the possessive 53-year-old actor's dating history suggests Theron may have her hands full.

Penn and second wife Robin Wright had a tumultuous marriage that lasted longer than expected. Before getting married in 1996, they broke up after each child was born - in 1991 and 1993 - only to reconcile a short while later.

The marriage lasted until December 2007, when they both filed for divorce owing to "irreconcilable differences". But they both withdrew their petitions the following year.

Two months after Penn won an Oscar for his portrayal of Harvey Milk, he filed for separation, only to withdraw it. The divorce was finalised in 2010.

Penn later told Esquire: "When you get divorced, all the truths that come out, you sit there and you go: 'What the f*#k was I doing? What was I doing believing that this person was invested in this way?'"

Before Wright, Penn was married to Madonna. They met at the beginning of 1985 and were married by August that year in Malibu. It lasted just 27 months after reported endless outbursts.

Madonna told Vanity Fair in 1991: "Sean was very protective of me. He was like my father in a way. He patrolled what I wore. He'd say: 'You're not wearing that dress. You can see everything in that'."

Downton Abbey actress Elizabeth McGovern was engaged to Penn. but soon found being with him "exhausting". They met on the set of Racing with the Moon, in which they were co-stars.

"There's a drama to the way Sean lives every bit of his life," she reportedly said. "It's what he thrives on. We lasted a couple of years on and off. I didn't want to get married but he did, or at least he said he did. He was the kind of guy who was like: 'This is my girl, I've got to own her.' It was all dramatics. But it was so exhausting. I couldn't sustain it."

Theron and Penn made their first public appearance as a couple at his Help Haiti Home on the night before the Golden Globes.