Taylor Swift’s Grammys prop was a perfect way to hide from lip readers

Swift won Album of the Year for the fourth time

Taylor Swift refused to repeat what happened at the Golden Globes at this year’s Grammys.

On Sunday 4 February, the “Karma” singer wore a strapless white Schiaparelli gown with various accessories that were assumed to be a nod to the singer announcing the release of another re-recorded album, which in fact wasn’t the case, but one of the accessories had a more practical use.

During the beginning of the awards ceremony, Swift was seen holding a black fan while talking to Jack Antonoff, a long-time collaborator of hers, using it to cover her mouth.

Many people took to X, formerly known as Twitter, debating whether the lace fan was another nod to the announcement of an album re-recording, however others thought it was so her lips couldn’t be read.

At the Golden Globes on 7 January, there was a situation in which Selena Gomez came up to speak with Swift and Keleigh Teller where fans were reading their lips to determine what was said. Gomez first appeared to utter the word “no” to Swift and Teller. As Gomez was seen leaning towards her bestie, the “Shake It Off” singer then let out a shocked gasp.

At the time, fans on X speculated that Gomez was talking about how Jenner allegedly told her not to take a picture with Timothée Chalamet.

“I asked for a picture with him and she said no,” one fan wrote, speculating on the viral conversation. In another video shared by The Hollywood Reporter, Teller can be heard exclaiming, “With Timothée?” as Gomez nodded in response. This prompted fans to further speculate that the viral conversation was about the reality star and Wonka actor.

However, Gomez later shut that speculation down in the comment of an E! News post, which asked if “Selena Gomez was gossiping about Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet at the Golden Globes”.

“Noooooo I told Taylor about two of my friends who hooked up. Not that that’s anyone business,” the Only Murders in the Building star wrote in her Instagram comment.

After the Golden Globes, Chalamet also shut down rumours of a feud between Gomez and Jenner, while he was spotted by paparazzi on 8 January in Los Angeles, California. When a TMZ reporter asked him whether he was “cool” with Gomez, who he co-starred in the 2019 rom-com A Rainy Day in New York, he simply responded: “Yeah, of course.” When asked whether there was any “beef” between Jenner and Gomez, the Little Women star also told TMZ: “No.”

As for the Grammys, Swift went on to shock everyone in her speech as she accepted the award for Album of the Year for the fourth time and using the occasion not to announce an album she was re-recording, but the release of an entirely new album.

Noting she’d decided to share the news at the Grammys in particular, Swift said: “I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years – which is that my brand new album comes out April 19. It’s called The Tortured Poets Department. I’m going to go and post the cover right now backstage, thank you, I love you.”

Also announcing the upcoming release on Instagram, Swift captioned the post with: “All’s fair in love and poetry.” This has meant some Swifties are speculating the album will cover her break-up with actor Joe Alwyn.