Hollywood Fires Back at Taylor
After fanning the flames of her many feuds in her new video, Taylor Swift faces major backlash
The video is anything but subtle. When Taylor Swift dropped the darkly satirical video for her thumping, venomous new single “Look What You Made Me Do” at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 27, it was packed with visual jabs targeting each and every one of her enemies. Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris were all referenced. “She’s out for revenge,” says an insider, “and she’s not holding back.”
But now she’s facing everyone’s wrath. Fans are furious, accusing Taylor of stooping too low and also copying a part of Beyoncé’s “Formation” video. Now her enemies and exes are firing back. “Taylor crossed the line with this video,” says the insider. “She has just made her feuds worse.” Adds a second insider: “The backlash is huge. This has set off a war in Hollywood.”
Taylor didn’t even present the video in person. It would, of course, have meant sharing the stage with VMA host Katy. “Katy had heard rumors Taylor was targeting her in it,” explains a source close to Tay’s longtime rival. “So she deliberately avoided being onstage when Taylor’s video premiered. She didn’t want to look foolish.” Sure enough, Taylor, 27, appears as a vapid pop star who looks suspiciously like Katy. While she’s previously indicated she’s ready to end the feud, Katy, 32, “won’t let Taylor get away
with this,” says another Katy insider. “She’s already calculating her next move, and Taylor isn’t going to like it.”
Kim and Kanye were equally appalled. Taylor’s lyrics are one thing — “I don’t like your little games / Don’t like your tilted stage” seemingly refers to the Wests’ 2016 feud with Taylor over Kanye’s “Famous” lyrics and the stage the rapper, 40, used on his last tour. But Kim, 36, thinks a video scene showing Taylor in a tub full of diamonds is making light of the harrowing October 2016 Paris jewelry heist that saw Kim robbed at gunpoint tied up in a bathtub. “Kim is utterly disgusted with Taylor for mocking what she considers the scariest moment in her life,” says the insider. Adds a Kardashian source: “Kim and Kanye just think it’s low and pathetic of Taylor. But they won’t stoop to her level.”
Her exes are also unhappy. Taylor took aim at Tom, 36, in a scene with male dancers clad in “I ♥ TS” shirts, a clear reference to the tank top he wore during her Fourth of July party last year. “Tom feels like a total idiot for going anywhere near Taylor,” says an industry source. “Now he sees her as a desperate attention-seeker.” A graveyard tombstone with the name Nils Sjöberg, the songwriter pseudonym Taylor used on ex Calvin’s 2016 hit “This Is What You Came For,” is also being seen as a dig. Video footage of the Scottish DJ, 33, at the VMAS shows he didn’t clap when her video made its much-hyped debut. “Calvin,” says the industry source, “is ignoring Taylor.”
But she won’t be ignored. “This is just the beginning of what she’s going to unleash on her haters,” says a source. Many close to her think it’s long past time she get over her petty revenge fantasies. Says the second insider, “Some of her friends think she’s behaving really immaturely and, even though they know she can be spiteful and petty, that this song and music video have taken things too far.” ◼