Dear Gossips, 

It’s happening. Ryan Gosling will perform “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars. The Academy hasn’t made it official-official yet but Variety reported it yesterday and the Academy “declined to comment” on the story which most people are taking to mean that it’s true… 

 

We will see Ken on stage on Oscar Sunday, performing for millions but, really, just for one: Barbie in the front row. Because an actor like Ryan Gosling would only commit to this in character. Like what’s the point if he just gets up there in his usual Gucci tuxedo? 

 

You can’t sing lyrics like…

“Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blonde fragility?
I'm just Ken
Where I see love, she sees a friend
What will it take for her to see the man behind the tan and fight for me?”

…without putting on the fur coat, the headband, and the fingerless leather gloves!

So now to the question of a real-life date. As Maria noted in Celebrity Social Media on Monday, Eva Mendes was front row at Dolce & Gabbana during Milan Fashion Week this past weekend leading to speculation that she will indeed join Ryan at the Oscars and walk the carpet with him for the first time since all those years ago at the premiere for The Place Beyond the Pines. 

 

Eva added more fuel to it when she posted a follow-up and actually namechecked Ken in the caption: 

 

I wrote at The Squawk a few weeks ago that I had a hard time believing that they would break with their own standard of separating the personal from the professional. The fact that Ryan and Eva have remained so private about their relationship is the reason no one knows anything about their relationship – and why the tabloids are repeatedly wrong about their relationship. It’s more important than ever these days with how out of control people are on social media with their uninformed and sh-tty TikTok takes on celebrities. 

If they step out together at the Oscars, then the next time they don’t step out together, those amateurs will be whipping out the “trouble in paradise” takes. 

But maybe they just don’t give a f-ck anymore. Or, maybe, certain occasions call for an exception. Ryan Gosling has been nominated for Oscars before, but he’ll probably never perform an Oscar nominated song at the Oscars ever again. And his wife, understandably, would want to see that in person. Is that worth a one-time exception to their rule? 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey