Everyone is hanging out without you
It's the summer of A-list group fun
One of my favourite genres of celebrity gossip is “Look at these famous people you mightn’t expect to be friends hanging out together in their personal time!"
Yes, it sounds quite niche but it actually happens a lot. And summer 2023 really seems to be the year of it coming to a head, after a long and dreary pandemic. Thank you, Instagram, and A-listers that like to share.
I would say the phenomenon really started with Taylor Swift. She’s known for her high end celebrity gal pal gangs and feuds, so much so she’s written songs about them (of course she has) and enjoys fuelling the fire from time to time. She started the trend of bringing her famous friends out on stage before covid, and who didn’t show up often said a lot more than who did.
She also liked giving fans a glimpse in to her private life, especially her annual 4th of July party and her birthday celebrations. The pics of her and Tom Hiddleston went stratospheric back in 2016 when he wore an I Heart TS tshirt, and they canoodled alongside famous couples like Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, and the guest list included Karlie Kloss, Cara Delevingne and Este Haim.
And Taylor is still giving. This year’s party seemed like a more sedate affair, but included Selena Gomez and the Haim siblings. She’s gone walkabout with Selena, Gigi Hadid and Blake following her split from Joe Alwyn in the spring, and loves to flaunt her famous friends at every opportunity.
This has been an exciting thing for avid celeb watchers for years, but lately, Taylor is being outdone. We are catching glimpses of celebrities hanging out that rarely court attention. Snapshots of their actual spare time, trips taken together that aren’t in any way performative, and also of A-listers attending blow out bashes with guest lists spanning industries - is it unusual to find the D’Amelios and Tom Brady at the same party? It is. Leonardo DiCaprio rubbing shoulders with Beyonce and Kim K? Odd, and thrilling!
First up, Mike Rubin’s Fourth of July bash in The Hamptons (all pics from his IG @michaelrubin). In the past, the olde world, old money stalwarts of the Long Island enclave have frowned upon celebrity intrusion. But Mike Rubin doesn’t care! He will host a blowout white party in his ultra-modern beachside gaff, and he will invite whoever he wants! The man is worth 11 billion and has myriad business interests across sports and entertainment, so his guests were uber-impressive. As well as those mentioned above, Ben Affleck and Jlo were there, Usher performed, the Biebers partied, Kendall Jenner looked unreal, and there were LOADS of American sports stars like Devin Booker and James Harden (an ex of Khloe K, actually). Travis Scott even flew back from Longitude to attend, and Jay Z was letting loose.
Then there are the more low key gatherings. Kristen Bell posted a carousel of images of her family’s trip to Idaho on her IG, and at first glance it seemed like nothing special. But hidden in the middle was a shot of a lot of people at dinner outside. Look closer, and what do you see? A veritable star-studded gathering, that’s what! Besides Kristen and her husband Dax Shepherd, I spied Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox and Johnny McDaid (representing Ireland, gwan!), Jason Bateman and his wife, Jimmy Fallon, Shiri Appleby, David Chang and wife, Jake Tapper, Adam Scott, Olivia Munn and John Mulaney… some people think the dude with the glasses at the end is Elton John (!), I think it’s Kiefer Sutherland. This is yet to be confirmed.
Not to be outdone, Robert Downey Jr posted a pic of some of the cast of Oppenheimer hanging out in Brooklyn this weekend, with the addition of Emily Blunt’s husband, John Krasinski. Again, Cillian Murphy is repping for the Irish alongside Bobby DJ and Matt Damon. Again, thrilling.
But we love any out of context celeb pairing. Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal nearly broke the internet when a fan posted a pic of her meeting them in Malta. Then the cast of the forthcoming Gladiator were snapped with director Ridley Scott in Morocco, Paul going full GAA-pose.
I think we love it because it normalises these people. Even millionaire (billionaire) celebs love a theme party, or a casual dinner with friends. They’ll don their whitest whites, or enjoy a meal overlooking the Manhattan skyline in their comfies. They are the A-list, the people that draw us to buy magazines and music, see movies and tours. But at the end of the day, they’re just people. Fabulous, gorgeous people. And we too could be in their presence, someday. They mingle, they mix, they go to restaurants. It reinforces the notion that our next celeb encounter could be around the corner.
Kimmy K and Tom Brady have been circling one another for weeks, btw. Both recent divorcés, both masters in their field, both incredibly hot and incredibly high profile. I ship them, mostly because it will mean my interests aligning beautifully with those of my husband.
I always said I’d do murder to go to Kris Jenner’s Christmas Eve party, and I still would. There are Hiltons, Richards, Housewives, singers, stars present, as well as the obvious family members. And they’re off the clock, getting rowsy, celebrating. There’s no red carpet, this is behind the scenes. But it may have been eclipsed by Rubin’s. That is the new golden ticket.