RIP #Hiddleswift
(Grain of salt rating: I can prove nothing, but the music video paints a vivid picture)
Today marks 4 years since the infamous 4th of July Gilded-Age-Gatsby bash where the “I <3 TS” tee was donned, shown in papagraphs ‘round the world. Many laughed, but the clues we have uncovered via sleuthing suggest a more nefarious possibility.
A replica of this tee appears in the Look What You Made Me Do music video, and the public assumption has become that Taylor is parodying her romantic affairs Blank Space-style.
But what if I told you that Taylor is playing Karlie in that scene, not herself.
Feel familiar?
Yeah. Taylor is playing Karlie here (and in the rest of the video, apart from the Old Taylors, of course…but that’s for another post.)
Why does this matter?
Let’s start here.
This dance scene looks remarkably like a scene from Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi music video:
In addition, Taylor makes a sign by her eye during the dance
It seems to echo Lady Gaga’s in “Paparazzi”.
Okay, makes sense, you say. Taylor and Tom’s relationship was riddled with paparazzi shootings, most notably at the July 4th party. Why are you wasting my time with this? Karlie was at the party, duh. We all know that.
Well, on my 1,907,013th time watching the LWYMMD video, something clicked.
There is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-moment where the backup dancers pop out from behind “Karlie” and pull out walkie talkies as she snarls, “Look what you made me do.” Then it cuts to another one of the Karlies cutting off a plane wing.
This always struck me as odd, until I had figured out that this was Karlie not Taylor…and the men have not revealed their “I <3 TS” shirts yet.
The next time we see the men, they have put their walkies away and proceed to take off their blazers to reveal the t-shirts at Karlie’s bidding. This is interwoven with shots of the plane representing Taylor’s reputation–and perhaps her chances at a transatlantic romance–being chainsawed by another Karlie.
The next time we see this gang, they’re doing the aformentioned paparazzi dance.
These breadcrumbs, along with other sleuthing we’ve done on the lyrics of reputation and Lover, lead us to wonder if the video isn’t hinting that Karlie was involved in calling the paps on the July 4th party (and maybe even other dates of Tom and Taylor’s, seeing as Karlie probably would have known everywhere Taylor was going, being her “best friend.”)
Tom mentioned in the infamous post-Hiddleswift GQ interview that one of the friends at the party had the tank and lent it to him as a joke/because of his sunburn. Hmm. We wonder if Karlie gave him the shirt, knowing the paps were coming and realizing what an embarrassing shot it would make. It’s interesting that the photoshoot Taylor chose to reference was a picture of Karlie *yelling on a beach*.
This is all speculation, of course. I know most of the world thinks Hiddleswift was a PR move and thus the paps were part of that, but it’s interesting that Taylor isn’t even wearing a cute swimsuit when the pap photos were taken. She changes into cute ones at other parts of the day when the group is taking photos for Instagram. And she usually wears cute clothes or swimsuits for other pap walks or pre-arranged pap shoots, but in the Newport beach photos, she is in basically a lifeguard swimsuit. Don’t get me wrong, she still looks cute, but makes me think she didn’t know paps were coming.
And let me add…paparazzi do not just hang out in Rhode Island. I know the easy answer is “everyone knew that the party would be there so of course paps were there”, and that’s valid. But what I’m going on is…why are these things in the music video and what message is behind them?
The video could be saying that Karlie was tipping the paps off about Taylor and Tom in general, maybe not specifically Rhode Island…It’s interesting that Taylor and Tom dancing was all over the news the next day when (as I understand it) press aren’t really at the actual gala part, so most of what we know was filtered through celebrities’ social media…makes me think someone called the press to chatter, and Karlie posted a video of the two dancing, taken from far away.
I don’t know, I just know that this video is trying to say something.
Anti-Hero music video: son accuses the daughter-in-law of pushing Taylor off the balcony. I couldn't help but thinking of the Paparazzi music video, in which Gaga's lover pushes her off a balcony while the two are being papped kissing.
Balcony...Love Story...paparazzi...
Also, the rising from the coffin reminds me of the beginning of LWYMMD, and the concept of who killed Taylor is in both videos.
