"There's a 1976 Eve Babitz essay about a magazine reporter who noses into a scoop while watching Elizabeth Taylor eat room-service caviar with onion, right in front of the used car salesman whom she's supposedly dating. Surely, the reporter thinks, the one and only Elizabeth Taylor would not subject a lover to onion breath? Indeed not-the telltale allium portends that at this very moment, dear Liz is deep in secret negotiations to remarry Richard Burton! That's world-historic gossip."
"What's the harm in a little fun, I thought, as I headed off to a screening of The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, a music video premiere and behind-the-scenes documentary that played at all 540 AMCs in the country this past weekend. "I didn't realize we were coming here for one music video," said the woman behind me on the out escalator, with no appreciation for the other 85 minutes' worth of making-of clips, artist commentary, and lyric visualizers (the clean versions)."
Taylor Swift occupies unprecedented commercial and cultural visibility after a dozen albums, with massive promotional events, merch tie-ins, and fan-targeted activations. Album announcements and even song details now intersect with celebrity relationships and mainstream media moments, such as an announcement on a high-profile podcast and a risqué track that functions as a long joke. Film-format premieres, behind-the-scenes documentaries, retail exclusives, themed treats, and social-media effects amplify releases into experiential spectacles. New songs remain highly coveted by an insatiable fanbase, while lyrical moments like the song "Elizabeth Taylor" directly interrogate fame, exposure, and the fragile nature of celebrity marriage.
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