Katy and Orlando’s “loving space”

A rep for Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom today released a statement saying, "Before rumors or falsifications get out of hand, we can confirm that Orlando and Katy are taking respectful, loving space at this time." There’s lots to unpack here as the breakup comes right after a very public Oscar weekend. Orlando and Katy were at the Vanity Fair party together. She looked fantastic and walked the red carpet with Derek Blasberg, with whom she has been spending a lot of time:

 

It was a night to let your hair down and kick up your heels. (Admittedly, @katyperry looked better doing so.) @vanityfair

A post shared by Derek Blasberg (@derekblasberg) onFeb 28, 2017 at 8:29am PST

No surprise, but there’s an X factor at play – a few days earlier, Orlando was hanging out with Erin McCabe. (Her father is Dr. McCabe, president of the Global Green, a climate change and sustainability organization.) So had he and Katy already split?

The UK tabloids are all over the Erin and Orlando angle; according to the Daily Mail, Erin swapped cards so she could sit next to Orly. It’s the Daily Mail, so I know we should take it with a fistful of salt. But there are receipts in the form of photos and video – they are flirting but it doesn’t go further than whispering in each other’s ears. PEOPLE also posted the story… and they would not risk pissing off Katy. She would have certainly been given the heads up about the photos, and this loving joint statement seems like a PR offensive.

This is not the first time Katy has been confronted with some questionable Orlando behaviour. But when the Selena stuff went down in Vegas, Orly and Katy were still fresh, about 5 months in. Combine that with the fact that Katy has a superhuman tolerance for douchebags and you can see how he could talk his way out of it back then.

There’s always been something kind of smutty about his behavior. And this timeline is definitely tingly:

Wednesday: Orlando canoodles with Erin.
Sunday: They are at the Vanity Fair party together.
Tuesday: Orlando posts a photo with Butters, Katy’s dog.

 

A post shared by Orlando Bloom (@orlandobloom) onFeb 27, 2017 at 11:15am PST

Wednesday: Breakup announced as photos of Orlando and Erin are in the Daily Mail, The Sun and PEOPLE.

My question is, what happened between Wednesday and the break-up announcement? Were they broken up before the weekend and wanted to keep it quiet? Or did she get the heads up on the photos late yesterday/early this morning (after Orlando posted the Butters picture on Tuesday) and she decided to try to get ahead of the story?

Because “respectful, loving space” is specific – it’s not permanent and it’s not final. Katy has interesting patterns – she and John Mayer went back and forth many times, but she and Russell Brand broke up over text and never saw or spoke to one another again.

This certainly doesn’t feel final. It sounds to me like she’s trying to give him space to get his head out of his ass… or she was blindsided. Because even if they split before the weekend and he was totally free to hook up, they had obviously agreed to appear at VF together. There is no way they would “wing it” at a huge party with photographers – they would have discussed how to handle it. They went into that party together, or agreed to keep up appearances. Either way, he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.

Best case scenario, he couldn’t keep his sh-t locked down for a weekend, until they had time to release the breakup statement. Orlando, while not A List, has been famous a very long time, and Katy has elevated him. This is how he behaves in public when he knows full well people can see him and take his photo. So what’s he doing in private? And how long until she goes back?