Taylor Swift wrapped up the European leg of her tour in London last week and that led to all kinds of frenzied speculation about whether or not she and/or Beyoncé would show up at the Democratic National Convention. In the end, we were all clowns.
Taylor returned home to America and spent the weekend at her mansion in Rhode Island, the site of so much great gossip in the past. That was years ago, a summer to remember in 2016, the Taymerica era, briefly featuring Tom Hiddleston. Since then, Rhode Island’s been a lot more low-key, especially when she was dating Joe Alwyn.
That was a much quieter love for Taylor, as Joe was evidently less comfortable being a supporting character in her spotlight. Now, though, Taylor has a boyfriend who seems quite content to benefit from her fame but also satisfied to enjoy as much of it as he’s granted, no more and no less. And so we return to Rhode Island in 2024. It’s not as splashy, as least in terms of public performance, but the star power remains the same.
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who were there in 2016, are back – and this is the first time we’ve seen them since the It Ends With Us chaos. As if there was any question that the drama around the promotion of the movie would affect Blake’s friendship with Taylor. She’s godmother to the Lively-Reynolds children, and while she did not promote the movie the way she promoted Deadpool & Wolverine, the circumstances were different. The It Ends With Us drama happened around the same time as Vienna and doing it after would just stir up a situation that was starting to wind down.
Blake’s appearance in Rhode Island, though, is enough to confirm that Taylor adjacency is still one of her assets – and while they of course would argue that they don’t commodify their relationship, for both of these women, whether they like or agree with it or not, friendships, and their performance of it, have always been part of their brands. This is why we have the word “squad”.
In addition to Blake and Ryan, Bradley Cooper and his daughter were also spotted in Rhode Island. And Patrick and Brittany Mahomes and their kids. That’s a whole other alleged mess because supposedly the internet clocked that Brittany supposedly liked a Donald Trump tweet which set off alarm bells among Swifties. That like has since turned into an unlike and now we don’t know where or not there’s a MAGA among in the Taylor Swift Universe.
So to bring it back to whether or not Taylor will be weighing in on the upcoming US election…
This latest development, if you can call it that, would suggest that no, she’ll continue to remain publicly neutral about the situation. Unless, of course, she’s the October surprise. We can talk about this some more at The Squawk today. (App link here)
