Sydney Sweeney changes the subject

One of the highlights on the TIFF calendar today is David Michôd’s Christy, a biopic of boxer Christy Martin with Sydney Sweeney in the role. Ahead of the world premiere this afternoon, it was announced yesterday that the film will be released November 7, which means the distributor has confidence for award season, which is what we’ve been expecting for months: a Sydney Sweeney Oscar campaign.

I’ve been writing about this all week in my posts about Sydney and the rumours that she and Scooter Braun are “casual”; that on the heels of her American Eagle controversy, the romantic speculation might not be the ideal discourse when she’s about to go into six months of hustle in support of what people are selling as the best performance of her career. 

So now we’re seeing that the attempt to change the narrative is underway with the confirmation of the release date and the Vanity Fair feature of the film published yesterday that includes an interview with Sydney. 

And as you can see from that caption, she is refusing to answer any questions about the jeans and wants to focus only on the film. Fair enough – after all, she’s telling someone else’s story and her own personal drama shouldn’t overshadow it. Which is kinda what Matthew Belloni was getting at in his newsletter for Puck the other day when he wrote that her reps need to “shut this down immediately, it only ends badly for your top client”. 

Has Scooter Braun been put on mute? 

Interestingly, Sydney’s getting an assist from TMZ. Late last night they posted an “exclusive” about Sydney’s “Oscar Performance” with inside information coming out of strong test screenings for Christy and how people who have seen the film think she could win the Oscar, and adding that “she's a huge star these days and the movie is coming out while she's the hottest thing in marketing”. 

Um, since when has test screening reaction been TMZ’s department? Do you smell the strategy? Not saying I’m mad at it, you have to do what you have to do. But I’m curious to see whether or not this kind of story placement comes with an exchange down the road, like in a few weeks or months, when there is news related to Sydney that’s more in line with TMZ’s usual reporting. It’s something to keep an eye on.