Every time Taylor Swift performs on The Eras tour, there is something that goes viral. Swifties, as we know, are intense. And of course there’s the whole TNT factor so when Travis Kelce is in the stadium, whether it’s a kiss or a look or whatever, people will be out here popping off. 

 

What popped off this weekend, however, doesn’t have to do with Taylor, it was another VIP in the tent with Travis, who flew in to Dublin to see Taylor’s show after attending a wedding on Saturday in the US. Julia Roberts also happened to be at the show and this interaction between Julia and Travis is sending me…

 

And sending everyone… 

@kelleyfarrelly

Hugging julia roberts no less!!☘️🧡💚🤸‍♀️ #taylorswift #eras #erasdublin #traviskelce

♬ original sound - Hannah Brown
 

I love it so much I wish ringtones could be visual because this would be mine on permanent, or at least until Julia does something else that is SO Julia. This is SO Julia Roberts, non? But first of all, some information that might be relevant: Julia is big into football and her teams are San Francisco and Kansas City, so she’s been a KC stan for a while, with or without Taylor Swift. In fact just a few months ago, when she was promoting Leave the World Behind, she went on a whole thing about Patrick Mahomes. 

 

 

On top of that, she’s mother, and she was mother well before it became pop culture vernacular. Mother in the sense that when Julia Roberts likes someone, when she’s friends with someone, she starts performing maternally, as if she’s signalling to the audience that this person is hers, under her supervision. It’s a power flex. At least that’s one of her moves. And she’s playing that move here with Travis. It’s giving mother, but not cougar mother. Some Swifties are offended because they think she’s horny but that, to me, is an amateur hour take on Julia Roberts by people who don’t know her, who are not familiar with her celebrity person. She’s not hitting on him, she’s nesting him. This is an unofficial adoption. He’s part of her pack now. 

Which is totally different from her other move, a move she makes that isn’t so much mother energy but best-friend-to-the-point-of-almost-girlfriend energy. If you’ve been around long enough you will remember Julia presenting to Denzel Washington at the Oscars. “I love my life” is what she said before giving him the trophy and then jumping on him so that he basically had to carry her off the stage while his wife, Pauletta, watched from the seats. LOL FOREVER. 

 

 

What these two signature Julia Roberts moves have in common is familiarity. The power of familiarity, at least how she wields it. Not everyone can get away from being overly familiar with people because so many of us are awkward, we’d feel embarrassed. Why would Julia Roberts ever feel embarrassed. It would never occur to her. If she’s being familiar with someone it’s a bonus to them, it’s her way of honouring them. She is gifting them with her affection. And in that way, too, she establishes hierarchy. Travis Kelce may be the boyfriend of a major popstar but she is, still, Julia Roberts. 

Let us know what you think about Julia and Travis at The Squawk today. (app link here)