Naturally, the new video is full of Gyllenhaal Easter eggs...
One of the “from the vault” songs on Taylor Swift’s latest re-recording of her albums, Swift opted to include 30 songs on her new version of RED, including a handful that didn’t make it onto the original. RED is said to be predominantly about her ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal, and “I Bet You Think About Me” certainly is if the red scarf is any indication.
Directed by Taylor’s bestie Blake Lively, who was on hand to celebrate Taylor during her performance on SNL last weekend, the song centres on a couple (T Swizzle and Gyllenhaal) after they’ve broken up and as he prepares to marry someone else.
With lyrics like “Well I tried to fit in with your upper-crust circle,” “You grew up in a silver spoon gated community / Glamorous, shiny, bright Beverly Hills” as well as references to the man’s literary tastes and “organic shoes”, all fingers point to Gyllenhaal. The son of a film producer and film director, Gyllenhaal grew up in Hollywood’s high society and he is a descendant of a noble Swedish family on his father’s side. Basically, he grew up wealthy in LA – check, check.
Swift, meanwhile has hinted at Gyllenhaal’s tastes in a song that did make it into RED the first time around – “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”. “And you would hide away and find your peace of mind / With some indie record that’s much cooler than mine” is also said to be about the actor and ties in with the hipster vibes of this new (to us) tune.
The music video marks Lively’s first turn in the director’s chair and stars Miles Teller as the groom attending his all-white wedding only to find himself seeing visions of Swift all dressed in red and dressing him down. Funnily enough, Teller did get married in 2019 for real to long-time girlfriend Keleigh Sperry Teller, who plays the bride in the wedding video. It must be weird to reenact your recent nuptials only for your real-life husband to pretend to be in love with a tall, talented blonde woman instead, but then if Taylor Swift asked us to do just about anything, we’d probably say yes too.
Swift presents Sperry with the now-iconic red scarf as a wedding gift, the one from “All Too Well” (“And I, left my scarf there at your sister’s house / And you’ve still got it in your drawer even now”). Back at the time of writing the album, Swift was photographed out with Jake and his sister Maggie wearing a striped scarf that hasn’t been seen since and it’s said to be the scarf. And in answer to your question, yes, Swifties go deep on this kind of thing.
The scarf has taken on iconoclastic levels of fame in recent years, and Jake’s sister, actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal is regularly asked if she has the scarf. “I am in the dark about the scarf. It’s totally possible [that I have the scarf], I don’t know,” she said on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
However, a recent spate of stories on Instagram gossip page Deuxmoi implies that a mysterious third person has the holy knitted relic. “I have the actual scarf and I have proof…” they wrote in. Deuxmoi has since claimed that they have since verified that it is the real scarf and the person would like it to be returned to its owner. “Obviously I am a Taylor Swift fan and as much as I’d like to hold onto this piece of pop culture forever, it’s way too iconic to sit in my closet,” they wrote.
Interesting. Is the RED (Taylor’s Version) era going to come full circle and return the infamous scarf to the singer? Or is it just yet another little Easter egg hunt she’s setting up for her fans? Only time will tell (and I’ll relish every minute of it).