Golden Wonder: I say Tayto , you say Tahto, when will she call the whole thing off?!

[KimmySchmidtsSmile]

Thread two

Good to see you back Kimmy, thought maybe the real life vortex had sucked you away for good !

Lulu is a dead ringer for Harry Potter in his glasses. Perhaps as we know ToTo is of the ginger persuasion they've got a Harry and Ron role play thing going on.

Loved the Dongs video Waitrose. That's what we'd all look like on the plane on our way to TayTay's 4th July party.

Maybe she is just building anticipation so her party has maximum impact. It's all in the timing

Frayed : are you at liberty to divulge your husband's ludicrous theory about the Go Compare adverts ?

time.com/4390634/taylor-swift-july-4th/

Aw thanks Taytoers. ^Taytay with towels, lollies, pie and cake. That bitch made me hungry.
Bounce houses?! Really? It's Beyoncé Castles FFS. Everyone knows that.

My husband believes the ONLY explanation for the singing Go-Compare Man is that he (the singer) is BLACKMAILING the owner of Go-Compare. He really really believes this which is why I have used capitals. He will NOT accept that the marketing worked which is why they continue with him as apparently the ad is TOO annoying. BLACKMAIL.

I hope TayTay throws a fabulous 4th July party, a 20 person private jet would be a snip at £160k according to my googling. Peace, Pie and Tay-To are what the world needs. Ooh ToTo laughing at pie would be ace, like those women laughing at salad stuff.

Those Instagram photos make her look incredibly smug

Oh theres a brother Taytay.
Im off to investigate him.

He's called Austin, he's a graduate of Notre Dame (University, not bell tower) and Vanderbilt, he works as a feelance photographer and acts. Of course he does.
Hes two and a half years younger than Tay.
He also looks a tad smug.

Your DH might be on to something there Frayed

I thought that AntiBoop.

It all looks so staged and not that much fun at all (hmm funny that reminds me of something....)

I can imagine she's that hostess who runs about insisting everyone has LOTS OF FUN and puts everyone on edge. Plus the whole matchy thing - please come to my house to celebrate 4th July with me, but you have to wear THIS onesie and hold THIS towel and at 2:13pm we're going to make a cake in the American flag colours. I imagine assistants getting fired because they are 4 blueberries short.

The thing I don't get with TayTay is the why and the who is it for. Her public image is so mega-controlled it's obvious to definitely any adult and I'd guess any team who cared enough to give any headspace to something as uncool as Taylor Swift. Maybe she's actually just curating her life for herself and those hyper-smug instas are just the equivalent of me posting 'so proud of Billy and Gilly, another wonderful school report' on FB?

I sort-of-get-but-don't-really believe that the tried and tested ambivalent sexuality act like you might be gay and never admit you have a girlfriend thing helps market boybands, simply because it's so pervasive that if it doesn't work why do they all do it? But who in TayTay's target market is going to buy her perfume because she's banging Loki? And the lifestyle stuff - that's surely not remotely aspirational for teens although it's not 1993 anymore so perhaps clubs with sweaty walls, marlboro lights, purple nasties and tiedye aren't cool and it's all baking, control freakery and dressing like the queen mother. So logically it is us she is selling to with all this shit...

Frayed : interested to hear your husband's theory about the GoCompare advert. The reason I asked was because I knew the man's agent. Amongst other people he represents a lot of opera singers, which is the GoCompare guy's background. I've never heard any rumours of blackmail, only that the guy can't believe his luck because he's paid a shed load of money and no one recognises him without his costume !

As an aside, this agent guy and others connected to him have been my only tenuous connection to the "world of showbiz". Never have I spent more boring and rage inducing times than when I've been around these people - and they're not the famous ones. So self obsessed, rude, vain, I could go on. Luckily I no longer see any of them. I'm sure there are some decent people in "the biz", but if they're anything to go by it's a world best left laughing at from the outside.

Think I've just raised my blood pressure remembering these people, off to the SBoS (possibly a contradiction!!).

That's interesting WhenTheShip. I often wonder whether these stars stop to think who actually cares about their lives, outside of their family and friends. When you see a big expose of a sleb who's decided to go public so that "we" all know the real them, what's really happened/happening to them, do they think we've all been wondering ?

If they're a minor sleb trying to court publicity, or to make a comeback, you can kind of get it. But if you're a mega famous 26 yr old with more money than you'll ever need why not just sit back and enjoy ?

Hmm having now seen the photos of TayTay's previous 4th July parties, I've just remembered I might be busy that day and can't come... sorry not sorry

I imagined a showbiz star packed pool partay... not a smug girl's slumber party complete with matching onesies. Uuurgh. I think whoever said upthread that she was severely bullied as a youth and is trying to recreate and control her own girl 'crew' has it spot on. This is a girl desperately trying to be popular and do all the things she wasn't allowed to do because she was excluded as a teen. It's quite sad really.

As for the manufactured romances... I think it's to control her image (as per the blind linked above), plus a few genuine romances thrown in - and I firmly believe that the whole TH performance was the superstar equivalent of posting photos on FB of yourself having a great time, snogging other guys and generally being 'so over it' to prove you've totally moved on from your very hunky ex boyfriend. And the more he doesn't take the bait, the worse more entertaining it's going to get.

My total TayBro knowledge is videoed himself throwing a pair of Kanye shoes in the bin after the lyrics hoo-ha. Don't diss his sis, he is so ruthless he does not reycyle

nicenewdusters Eek I'm sure the GP man is lovely and gets his work fair number square. My husband is just filling in his own blank spaces with nonsense.

Well I want to be in Swiftys squad and go to her to her 4th July party.

Course I'm a million years too old, not a supermodel, and won't be jumping around in a bikini anytime soon. I'd end up in the kitchen with her mum doing the washing up, telling the young squadees to put a cardi on, necking the brandy.

ungoogleable that all sounds very feasible. TayTay's main flaw is that she just really really wants people to like her, her life would be so much more straightforward if she could find happiness in just sitting on top of her piles of cash not giving a fuck.

I guess if you want teen girls to buy your stuff, you have to woo the adults in their lives as otherwise it's not going to happen. Her management seems very switched on.

frayed I saw that video I liked it.

TayTay's main flaw is that she just really really wants people to like her

Agreed. It must be exhausting.

(By the way Donatella, I love your username, currently working my way through the West Wing box set and Donna is my fave!)

Thank you! I am about to finish a PhD and am so looking forward to having time to do a west wing rewatch. It's always particularly good viewing in a US election year, although I don't think Trump vs Clinton is going to quite as good a match as Obama's first term.

Yeah, agreed frayed but isn't Taylor too monstrously uncool for teens? I wondered the same about 1D - who actually are their fans? Ed Sheeran, that 7 years old dude, James Bay, that budapest guy who sounds like he's singing dadoobiedo and the resr of the solo-boys-with-guitars lot I can see will appeal to your twentysomethings with their first job in London who think they have to act boringly now they're adults. TayTay, the Biebster, 1D - I have to imagine they're doing it all for my benefit as my preteen kids only know they exist through me, as they can't access content unless I allow and enable it; for teens and early twenties surely they are crashingly dull and uncool, and my over 50s friends and family have no idea or interest that these guys exist as their kids are too old for them. so that leaves them selling to me.

I can see that what she does works as she's a gorgeous young multimillionaire and I am a skint greying 40-something accountant. I just don't understand it.

When - 1D have an absolutely massive fanbase of teen girls and older. Massive. I'm sure plenty in that age bracket think they're crashingly uncool, but equally there are swathes who adore them. 'Twas ever thus (I was a teenage Take That fan).

Think the same applies to Taylor as well, although her music just isn't on my radar at all. I think her music has a really broad appeal, for sheer radio-friendliness, but her core fans who buy concert tickets and follow her on social media, they will be teen girls who find her utterly aspirational in every way.

Which is why I'm confused about this latest charade. Her previous "boyfriends" have kind of existed in the same sphere as her (musicians who her fans might be fans of also) but TH seems a bit left field because he's older, for one. There have been various blind items about Taylor wanting to construct a new, edgier, more adult image, and although TH ain't edgy, I can see why she might think it's a step in the right direction.