Have you heard the news? (No, not that. Or that.) In a recent interview with Vogue, Taylor Swift revealed that Gilmore Girls is her favorite TV show. And that’s not all: In perhaps the same interview, or a different one, Swift revealed that “she wrote her song ‘Mine’ about fictional characters, Rory Gilmore and Jess Mariano, from Gilmore Girls.”
A look at Swift’s lyrics for this song seems to lend credence to the latter revelation. “Do you remember we were sitting there by the water, you put your arm around me for the first time?” Jess and Rory did in fact sit by the water on at least two occasions, the most important being when the two implicitly decided to date (after the incident with Dean at the dance marathon. You remember). And Jess makes “a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter,” particularly when the Ivy League–bound Rory, daughter of absent father Christopher, skips school to visit Jess in New York City (ultimately leading to her missing her mother’s graduation from business school. You remember).
Yet there is, in fact, no interview, recent or not, in which Swift reveals that she wrote this (or any) song about Gilmore Girls. Nor is there a Vogue interview in which Swift reveals Gilmore Girls to be her favorite show. These rumors are merely two pieces of widely disseminated disinformation feuling a beloved conspiracy theory held by two separate but overlapping fandoms: that Taylor Swift loves Gilmore Girls.
Or has at least seen it.
“I know in my heart and soul that Taylor swift has seen Gilmore girls at least twice and I need to know if she’s team Jess, Logan, or dean,” one fan tweeted about the matter. “In my mind taylor swift has watched gilmore girls and is a big fan of lorelai gilmore and she even named one of her cats after her,” tweeted another. The theory has also found life in the r/GilmoreGirls Reddit, where members have asked such questions as “does taylor swift watch gilmore girls?” and “Is Taylor Swift a fan of Gilmore Girls?”
The trouble is Swift has never stated outright whether she is a fan of Gilmore Girls or not. As far as this reporter can tell, she has never even publicly acknowledged its existence.
There are, of course, some things we know for sure about Swift. She grew up on a Christmas-tree farm; she’s dating an NFL tight end; and, perhaps most relevant to this discussion, she loves scattering hidden messages for her fans to find and decode as though she’s a serial killer and they are capable but underestimated members of a local newsroom. Could her opinion on the late-aughts classic teen dramedy be one such Easter egg waiting to be discovered? Below is a presentation of all the evidence I could find showing that Swift is a fan of — or has at leastseen — Gilmore Girls.
More Lyrical Overlap
“Mine” isn’t the only Swift song fans have deemed to be about Gilmore Girls. The second-most-widely-made connection is between “champagne problems” and Rory’s relationship with newspaper heir Logan. (“In a recent interview, Taylor Swift reveals she wrote her song ‘champagne problems’ about fictional couple, Rory and Logan, from TV show Gilmore Girls,” posted the same account that posted those other falsities. 87,000 favs later, it followed up with “guys i was lying.”) On the show, Logan proposes to Rory, who — for a period — doesn’t know how to respond until she knows she has to say “no.” Or as Swift would say, “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer ’til someone’s on their knees and asks you.”
Other connections: “The Way I Loved You” as the Rory-Jess-Dean love triangle. “All You Had to Do Was Stay,” as Jess showing up at Rory’s dorm only to be turned down. “The 1,” as Lorelai and Christopher’s final breakup. “this is me trying,” as either Rory finding her way back to the good-girl life after stealing a yacht and quitting Yale, or as Jess’s entire character arc. In “dorothea,” Swift sings, “Damn, Dorothea. They all wanna be ya.” A Gilmore fan might point out that this is lyrically similar to the poem Lorelai wrote for former Independence Inn owner Mia on the occasion of her wedding in episode 17 of the seventh season: “And so, a toast to you, dear Mia. It makes us all so glad to see ya.”
I could continue, but we should move on to our next piece of evidence.
Taylor Swift Has Watched Other TV Shows
Of course, we know Swift named two of her cats, Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson, after the television characters Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson. Additionally, in the Midnights promo cycle, Swift confessed that “Lavender Haze” was inspired by hearing that phrase used on Mad Men. This all confirms that Swift at least knows what television is. It also confirms that she is willing to write about television and that she is familiar with the actor Jon Hamm, who also appeared on — what’s that? Oh yes, Gilmore Girls.
Relevant Dates and Related Numerology
Five is a particularly important number in the Swift universe, perhaps second only to 13. As she explained in a TikTok, she saves her most “vulnerable, personal, honest, emotional” songs for the fifth slot on each album. Knowing that, it may interest you to learn the date on which Gilmore Girls premiered: October 5, 2000. Uh-huh.
And if your mind isn’t blown enough, you may be further interested to know the birthdate of Swift’s grandmother Marjorie, the opera singer and subject of the song “Majorie”: October 5, 1928. Uh-huh!
Also, Gilmore Girls has 153 episodes, and the address of Taylor Swift’s Tribeca townhouse is 153 Franklin Street. Uh-huh!
Finally, the last episode of Gilmore Girls aired on May 15, 2007. That very night, a teenage Swift made her awards-show debut performing “Tim McGraw” at the Academy of Country Music Awards. While you may not think that’s a strong enough connection, particularly compared with the last three, you must acknowledge one thing: Gilmore Girls and Taylor Swift were both on TV that night. And you must ask yourself: On purpose?
There Is a Character Named Taylor (Doose) on Gilmore Girls
Swift seems like the kind of girl who knows when other people have the same name as hers.
The Carole King Connection
Even the Gilmore and Swift novices among us know the Carole King component is an explosive piece of evidence. At the 2019 American Music Awards, King presented Swift with the Artist of the Decade award and Swift said King had taught her that “an artist could transcend so many phases and changes in people’s lives.” In 2021, Swift inducted King into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and talked about how she has listened to King’s music since she was 7 years old. She said, “Carole taught artists like me that telling your own story is worth the work and struggle it takes to earn the opportunity for your story to be heard.” She called King “the greatest songwriter of all time.”
Not only does King’s song “Where You Lead, I Will Follow” serve as the monstrously popular Gilmore Girls theme, but she also plays a character on the show: music-store owner Sophie Bloom. The evidence here is … you think Swift is not gonna watch that?
The Lauren Graham Meeting
Swift once met Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai. (I’ll pause while you catch your breath.) Graham has shared this story publicly at least twice: once in a TikTok interview and once at a 2022 event at the 92nd Street Y. Apparently, the two spoke briefly at a birthday party for Graham’s fellow Parenthood actress Mae Whitman. “She was incredibly poised and kind and knew about Gilmore Girls, and we had a really cool conversation,” Graham said.
That is obviously a very intentional way to phrase Swift’s stated relationship to Gilmore Girls. It isn’t that she had “seen” Gilmore Girls. It isn’t that she was “a fan” of Gilmore Girls. She instead “knew about” Gilmore Girls. And of course, there are all sorts of things one can know about without having direct experience in — sex, for example, or the Star Wars franchise.
Now, Graham seems like a particularly kind and humble person. Had Swift told her she was “a fan” of Gilmore Girls, I’m not sure Graham would convey those words exactly, lest it seemed like she was bragging. Maybe Swift said she was “a fan” and Graham assumed she was just being polite and didn’t want to overstate the encounter. Or maybe Swift really did just say something like “I know what Gilmore Girls is, and I acknowledge that you were in it.”
Unverified Rumors Related to Things Taylor Swift Might Have Said
In a Reddit post dedicated to compiling the TV shows and movies Swift has mentioned watching or liking, one user wrote that if Swift hasn’t seen Gilmore Girls, she would certainly like it. Another responded, “I read somewhere that she mentioned watching GG before during a Rep secret session.” Another replied, “I have seen a youtube comment saying that once she said she watched it growing up… but idk, I haven’t seen that ink anywhere else.”
After spending a regrettable amount of time attempting to confirm any of these comments, I must unfortunately leave them unconfirmed. It could be true, though. Who knows? It is not for me to make the final call. As with all conspiracy theories related to Taylor Swift, you’ll have to decide for yourself what you believe. Is it all a Stars Hollow coincidence … or the work of a mastermind?
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Kelly Conaboy , 2024-02-06 13:00:22
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