The 81st Golden Globes took place in LA on Sunday and as per standard internet rule, we already have our gossip material for the quarter.

This time, it’s a hard-to-decipher conversation between three celebrities who also happen to be close friends. Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Keligh Teller were spotted engrossed in an animated chat when the camera zoomed in on their private conversation. Owing to the noisy atmosphere of an award evening, the audio of the chat is hard to understand, but the nosy lip readers on the internet have already built, sold and excessively shared a false narrative (connected to the second viral incident of the evening).

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner couldn’t look more in love, as they continued to ignore the world and be hypnotised by each other even at the award function. Their PDA and constant whispers of sweet nothings into each other’s ears went viral and eventually became one of the most shared moments of the night.

Picking up on the conversation between the ladies, netizens spotted Keligh mouthing the word ‘Timothée’ and before it could even be processed, a story about how Kylie didn’t allow Selena to take a picture with her man became the only pivotal plot of the night.

Next thing you know? Every media outlet, content creator and pop-culture pandits had a field day with this half-baked information on their social media channels and podcasts.

Escalating what could have possibly been a benign exchange between friends to a Team Selena vs. Team Kylie probe, within the next hour,  each published post was filled with comments tearing down both of these women by stans of the other.

It was the Oscar slap-gate all over again, except with very little truth or drama to fuel the sensationalisation. It could easily have been the night where inclusivity, diversity and change could have been the driving keywords of every subject, but here we are.

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Limited Series was received by actor-comedian Ali Wong for Beef. Ayo Edebiri took home the award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for The Bear and Lily Gladstone won in her category for her performance in the Killers Of The Flower Moon.

All of these women either created or starred (or both) in career-defining projects that redefined the agency women hold in this industry. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie winning the prestigious Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award is a further testament to that (despite the host’s unflattering attempt at making a superficial joke about the billion-dollar-earning headliner of the year).

But instead of celebrating these major milestones that are rare and few, the keyboard warriors got busy exhausting their energy in yet another internet-invented catfight,  stealing away the spotlight from women who actually fought hard to get their minute under the sun.

It was the same night which witnessed Jennifer Lawrence’s extreme enthusiasm for Emma Stone’s win (in the same category she was nominated in) and Selena Gomez’s proud winner prediction and visible joy despite losing the award to Ayo Edebiri – but none of it went as viral or made the ‘highlight’ cut.

It’s 2024, and as people of the internet, can we please be entertained and amused by topics beyond feuds involving women or jokes targetting their dating lives? (looking at you Jo Koy).

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Images: Instagram: @goldenglobes