Celebrity Social Media, January 7, 2025

We’ve been hearing a lot about negative PR tactics but here is an example of a positive press cycle in motion: Ariana Grande on the campaign trail. Ethan Slater’s ex-wife Lilly Jay wrote a fantastic essay for The Cut that focused on not just her separation (which came after she was recovering from a difficult childbirth and had uprooted her life to London with a two-month-old baby), but on how their relationship affected her work. 

Lilly is a therapist, which requires a level of distance and anonymity; she has had to face her clients knowing that they probably know what happened to her. Trying to work while knowing her patients can read about her marriage online has been a professional pain for her. Still, Lilly is mature, insightful, and gracious even though most people would not be any of those things in her position. And she never mentions Ariana or Ethan by name. From a PR perspective, instead of trying to discredit or quiet Lilly, we’re getting stories about how Ariana and Ethan are all bliss. I don’t know if it’s so much of a good strategy or the only one Ariana had. I mean, she could have gone after Lilly but I don’t think that would have worked. As for Ethan Slater, this story will always be the rock in his shoe, metaphorically speaking. 

Honestly, get Jeremy Strong in Princess Diaries 3 or The Devil Wears Prada 2. (And he and Anne Hathaway are friends. She defended him after that New Yorker piece in 2021.)

Joshua Jackson was out and about at the Globes afterparties and it reminded me that this story about Jodie Turner-Smith filing for child support slipped right under the radar at Christmas. 

The headline is a little misleading because there was no agreement in place when they filed for divorce, just a vague verbal agreement. This filing is about creating a binding child support (and maybe alimony) schedule, which seems much smarter than winging it and hoping everyone feels it’s fair.