Taylor Swift at the top of her game
It's Gossip Time!
Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: a pop star gets a new boyfriend, another pop star gets a trip to Disney World, and Hilary Duff gets another year older.
After the public relations disaster that was her breakup with Joe Alwyn and rebound fling with the 1975’s Matty Healy this spring, it is clear Taylor Swift (and her longtime publicist Tree Paine) went back to the drawing board on her whole boyfriend strategy. Swift spent the summer reminding the public how many famous girlfriends she has — Blake Lively, Zoë Kravitz, Gigi Hadid, Haim, Laura Dern (?) — and now, some months later, she has debuted a new man. The twist? He plays sports!
By now, you have most definitely seen video of Swift cheering her little split ends off at the Kansas City Chiefs game last Sunday. Every angle of the outing has been published and pored over by her legion of fans, and they seem to be loving it. Swift was there, of course, to support 33-year-old tight end Travis Kelce, who has been publicly declaring his interest in dating her since this summer. Swift sat with Kelce’s mom, ate a chicken tender with ketchup and seemingly ranch, and successfully avoided doing the tomahawk chop before driving off with Kelce at the end of the game in his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS convertible.
“They’re having fun,” a source told People of this new, very public relationship. “This was Taylor's first time meeting his mom and dad, and everyone was enjoying themselves. She was super chill and low-key hanging out with his friends and family.”
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After the game, Kelce brought Swift to an after party he hosted at a restaurant downtown called Prime Social. TMZ even got a photo of Swift wrapping her arm around him at the bar — ooOOoO:
There’s a lot to like about this pairing. Kelce is probably the most actively famous man Swift has ever dated. He is not a random British actor or a controversial British musician. He could potentially bring her even more fans in middle America, if there is anyone there left to be converted. And Swift has been boosting Kelce’s profile, too: His jersey sales are up 400 percent, and he gained 250,000 Instagram followers in the 24 hours after the game (more than he did after winning the Super Bowl last year).
Several outlets have reported that Swift is planning to attend Kelce’s game against those poor New York Jets in New Jersey this Sunday night, which has led to a spike in ticket sales and to the NFL using her music to promote the game. Everything is humming along synergistically.
Swift also found time to be a great friend and general ally to women this week, as she has continued to boost Sophie Turner in the wake of her contentious custody battle with Joe Jonas. According to People, Turner is now staying in one of Swift’s New York apartments (an “investment property” in Tribeca) with her daughters as she navigates the U.S. court system. “Taylor has opened her home to Sophie,” a source told the tabloid. “Sophie is welcome there any time. Taylor continues to be a great friend.”
Speaking of custody battles, Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis settled theirs this week after months and months of back and forth in both New York and L.A. courts. It started with Sudeikis serving Wilde custody papers while she was on stage at Cinemacon in April 2022, and now it has ended with Sudeikis being ordered to pay Wilde $27,000 in monthly child support. According to Us Weekly, the exes have agreed to a week-on, week-off custody split, and Sudeikis will also pay 25 percent of Wilde’s child care costs. Sounds about right to me.
We don’t know what’s happening in Ethan Slater’s custody dispute with his estranged wife Lilly Jay, but we do know that he is still dating Ariana Grande, so: woohoo! The pop star and the Spongebob Squarepants: The Musical actor were spotted together for the first time since their affair/relationship went public this week. They were photographed skulking around Disney World in Orlando, Florida, naturally — not pap strolling, but not hiding themselves, either. TMZ got video of the outing and reported the following with a straight face: “We're told Ariana and Ethan are really happy together and really good for each other and all of her friends love him.” Amen.
STUFF BY HILARY DUFF: Hilary Duff turned 36 yesterday! I hope you were thinking of her.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the news that Brie Larson has been called to dance:
She writes:
“Over the holidays last year, my inner voice was telling me to dance. I don’t have a dance background, so these thoughts were strange to me. But it felt like something inside of me wanted to come out.
I called my friend @daisykate_j to pick her brain - and little did I know that my life would not be the same. She connected me with @charliearches and I explained this urge with the mission that I would dance at least 6 hours a day, for as many days as possible. Every day we’d get up at 5am to get to the studio by 7:30am. There, we’d work on building a dancer. Flexibility, strength, weight transfers, spirals, breath, fascia, rooting - my experience was expanding. I danced in LA, NY, Cannes, Rome, Mexico - where my body was, dance was. People didn’t understand what I was doing, or why it mattered to me so much. Why turn your life around to dance? Because I couldn’t not.
On Saturday, to mark 7 months of commitment, I performed for my friends and family. It’s hard to explain what dance has become for me, but the goal was to share what I have through movement. It was such a fulfilling experience, and just the beginning. Thank you to all the dancers in class who helped guide me, thank you to my teachers Charlie, Daisy, Whitney, Megan, Laura - your love, guidance and friendship means so much to me. Thank you to my friends and family for your support. And thank you to my body for growing with me!”
I would LOVE to see video of this performance just kidding.
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"I would LOVE to see video of this performance just kidding." On day three billion of biblical rains in nyc, this is the only sentence that has made me laugh. you are doing god's work, lady!
I was dying at miss Brie writing all that and not posting a single video of said dance