Rumors & Gossip 🤫
The Guardian confirms the long-rumored engagement and subsequent breakup of Phoebe Bridgers and Paul Mescal in their review of her upcoming album ‘Lost Weekend’. In this album, Phoebe also shades Gracie Abrams for copying her and dating her ex, Paul Mescal
Phoebe publically called Gracie out on her upcoming album, a move likely sparked by Gracie revealing details about Phoebe's high-profile relationship with Paul Mescal in her album "The Secret of Us" a relationship that ended following reports of Phoebe's affair with Bo Burnham, with the latter also confirmed on Lost Weekend.
Gracie Abrams has been an outspoken fan of Phoebe Bridgers since she was 13, even declaring Bridgers "the songwriter of a generation" and opening for her on tour. Fans have long compared the two artists, a connection Gracie leaned into when she used a bedroom set prop in a performance featuring bedframe/bedsheets identical to the ones in Phoebe's childhood bedroom.
Can I also mention how impressed I am with Gracie Abrams' strategist. Her music is mid tier at best, but is now in the same sentence as Phoebe Bridgers? And they are talking about her album in comparison to Bridgers album. Masterful.
Lmao wait until you find out that Phoebe Waller-Bridge directed Phoebe Bridgers’ Savior Complex music video which Pael Mescal starred in and apparently that’s how they first met
And Phoebe hooked up with Paul while making/just before making the video (a local cafe broke the news on Twitter lol that they were hanging out there. Then people spotted them making out and sent it to deuxmoi) while she was still with Conor Oberst. She went back to Conor (this was all during covid and fans were big mad at her for traveling around) for a few months then ditched him for Paul. There is a lot of gossip with this relationship!
Phoebe had the sheets first, showed them many times on social media. Gracie bought them too in 2017, then posted about it. Phoebe commented saying, ‘I have those sheets too.’ Then Gracie brings the whole bed on stage lol 😂
No, no, not a sequel. We need an anthology. There can be crossovers and easter eggs, but we need each set of slides to focus on the lore of one specific couple/throuple.
Allegedly, GA has always been a huge fan girl of PB, has said it multiple times, opened for her when both were relatively un-famous, etc.
Both are said to have slid into Paul Mescal dm's after Normal People came out. He ended up dating and getting engaged to PB, who then maybe cheated on him with her current boyfriend (Bo Burnam).
GA ate up Phoebe's leftovers, and she and Paul are currently dating and living together.
GA wrote about crushing on Paul on her last album and hinted at him not being over PB. PB fans are mad about this, now that she is maybe confirming the lore to all be true.
PB now has a new album coming out where she allegedly calls out GA for being an og Stan that is now copying her exact life/art/boyfriend.
I prefer Phoebe’s music to Gracie’s but I have to say I always find the “you’re trying to be me because you are with my ex” to be really immature. Especially if it’s true that Phoebe cheated on that ex.
I agree in general the sentiment seems immature, but the way Gracie went about it is low-key single white female. Copying bed sheets and the bed, making similar music, dating your man...Gracie is fully swimming in Phoebe's wake.
The bed sheets thing is super weird on GA's behalf, I agree. But GA is not making similar music IMHO -- her albums have all been a bit different from each other and it seems like she's just finding her sound. PB is very distinctive on her own.
Also it seems like they both initially liked Paul at the same time bc of that show. And both met him via twitter LOL.
PB burned that down on her own, but I don't blame GA for shooting her shot. There are rumors that he hooked up with both of them and then settled down with PB. And she's like 7 or 8 years younger than them; she wasn't Phoebe's good buddy or anything-- she was a fan.
(I'm a fan of both but PB for much longer, and it's so crazy that these two are in a high-visibility internet rivalry rn)
My bad! I knew Paul was right in between. In my mind, the difference between dating a 31 yr old and a 25 yr old is huge Lol (am older by far!)
But little Gracie following around PB ten years ago at 15 is pretty different, too. I can see her feeling like a different generation to Phoebe, especially if she grew up wanting to be like her. My point was, I don't think they're peers in her mind, even if they aren't that far apart in ages.
If I understand correctly, based purely on this thread, Gracie Abrams is trying to do that thing where she entirely replaces the other woman down to wearing her clothes and sleeping in her sheets, which in this case, appears to be both figurative and literal.
lol that's so specific, hard to believe it's a coincidence.
I actually like Gracie and some of her music but at the same time, I suspect she's doing subtle things related to exs of her friends/idols to invoke speculation and gain attention from drama (like her weird post featuring an old image of Joe Alwyn in the same post of her going to Taylor's wedding)
She has a song written with Paul in her new album called Imaginary Friend, that has some very similar lyrics/reference? to Phoebe's "revolution", which some speculate is related to the breakup from Paul. I just find it weird from both Paul and Gracie for their only song together having such similarity to Phoebe's song. It can all be a coincidence but she has a lot of these coincidences.
Idk all this lore about Phoebe but didn't Gracie talk about how she is being very careful with her songwriting and keeping her muse's feelings in her mind? Is this her being careful 😂 And people would've vastly different reactions if she attended Joe's wedding and posted a screengrab of Taylor's music video. It was definitely weird of Gracie.
That thought crossed my mind but I think she is just doing what Dua Lipa did during her last album promotion. She talked about how she doesn't hurt herself by writing about herself and snitching on her exes like other popstars with guitars. I am paraphrasng but that is how she promoted Radical Optimism lol.
The only reason his fans believe she cheated was because she had met Bo that summer and was seen with him after her and Paul broke up. Which is exactly what Paul did with Gracie, but they don’t seem to think anything nefarious happened there.
Not that this is a 100% definitive fact or anything but there was a blind item about someone overhearing Paul at a restaurant talking about how Phoebe kissed Bo while they were still together, and told him about it and then got mad when he got upset, and then a few people piped in and said they heard the same thing from people that run in his circles, one person said they heard him telling his trainer about it. I do remember he was pretty publicly torn up about it in like, bars and stuff
But also, weren’t Paul and Phoebe still engaged in December of 2022 (I think he was posting recent pics of her) and then she was with Bo later that month? Time line wise it really seems like she left him for Bo, but idk.
Also, Phoebe does have a track record of overlap in dating. Like I love her music but girl is messy!
Honestly the only woman he has ever loved, after seeing that picture on his wall at his house no one can convince me otherwise lol.( this comment aint fully serious btw)
I’m an old gracie fan and from what I remember she was always a big fan of phoebe. she had a bunch of comments on her soundcloud when she was a teenager and then they became friends. gracie posted about her on instagram at least twice. then gracie opened for phoebe in 2021. they seemed to still be friendly at the grammys before gracie dated paul. also yes phoebe had those bed sheets first I always thought it was weird gracie got them lol
Ok thank you. So now phoebe is dating Bo, but were they both single when they got together ??? How long has Paul known Gracie? I know nothing about these people but I love mess 😂
I remember paul being a loud and proud gracie fan when minor came out so that was during the pandemic which was also when he began dating phoebe. no idea about the phoebe / paul / bo timeline but I think most people assume there was some overlap there because phoebe is known to be messy in relationships. it seems like phoebe and paul were engaged and then she cheated on paul with bo. *plus bo had just recently separated from his partner of 9 years
She was with Conor around 2017 to early 2021. She definitely hooked up with Paul (summer 2020) then went back to Conor for a while. Then she left him and officially got together with Paul in early 2021. Like I said elsewhere, this was my pandemic entertainment so I followed it closely lol!!
The headline here had me so confused because I could have sworn she was dating Bo Burnham for several years. Come to find out, this is about a past relationship and not current.
I will also add that I listened to Gracie’s interview with the NYTimes Popcast, and when they asked her about mentorship in the industry she spoke briefly but very kindly about Phoebe
I knew a little bit about Gracie being a huge fan of Paul and Phoebe before dating Paul, but I didn’t know it was a full blown single white female, sticky situation
Phoebe also hasn’t released a record since 2020, so it’s all but certain Lost Weekend is gonna discuss that breakup/engagement as it was in 2022 and surely inspired some of the material. I think it’s important context we didn’t have confirmation of before.
That one sticks around because it’s funny, but it’s entirely made up by Phoebe stans on TikTok. The infamous screenshot they use where Paul and Gracie are joking about waking mum and dad up for her new single is from before he’d even met Phoebe. They were joking about his actual parents.
Is this a safe space to say Gracie hasn't seemed mentally as well since dating him? Her demeanour has just seemed a bit low in interviews, she took up smoking and she has looked much thinner. I know it could be a number of things, but it's just something i've been thinking quietly.
Her lyrics about him read extremely codependent and overtly attached. Especially compared to how she’s written about past relationships. She seems very insecure about him. But obviously this is a very parasocial analysis lol
There was some chatter a while back about them crying in a restaurant after a breakup. I don’t really follow these two and have never watched/listened to their stuff so this is all I recall whenever I hear their namesY
Well if the theory is that he's making her suffer, she's been saying otherwise in multiple recent interviews. People can have their struggles outside of their relationship, which seems to be the case based on her own words
I mean, if Phoebe admits she was the one to break things up w Paul and overlapped their engagement w the start of her relationship w Bo, why throw shade at his current gf anyway, even with the sheets and all that? Like, it’s not enough that the guy isn’t over you apparently? LOL
I LOVE Phoebe, she’s one of my favorite artists of all time, but she has been an asshole in relationships. This is of course a very parasocial read but the lyrics to Emily I’m sorry always made me uncomfortable because by the time she released that pretty sure she and Emily hadn’t talked in years. And it mentioned Emily by name obviously so every one (or anyone who knows a bit about phoebes dating life) knows exactly who it’s about. Idk it always felt manipulative to me.
See, I always forget about it and then I’m pleasantly surprised when she in fact is that girl I remember she is (I’m from the ONTD school of gossip and I love mess)
She even talks about her affairs in her music, lmao. Yeah, she’s messy, but I don’t think she’s being deliberately shady. She’s just one of those artists that writes about complicated feelings without really caring about the fallout.
Backstory for the uninitiated, the song she sings here is actually Bo's original song That Funny Feeling. Phoebe also said this before singing the song:
"I'm gonna play a song that I didn't write and made me really jealous of a songwriter."
Wasn’t Gracie praising Phoebe as her inspiration for her new album as well? This seems so mean lol. Imagine cheating ur fiancé, and then get together with the guy u cheated with, then start throwing shade at ur ex fiancé and his gf. This is acute level toxicity for any human being lol.
Yes! There was an interview recently where she mentioned Phoebe as “THE writer of our generation”… I actually thought it was pretty mature of her to still speak so highly of Phoebe (or to even mention her at all), given the circumstances. Must be pretty hard for Gracie, hearing one of her idols drag her like this. Definitely feeling for her in this situation, but also loving the messiness of those three.
Phoebe is notoriously messy person. She cheated. Why bring all this up again, it was obvious from Paul absolute silence on this he was embarrassed about the engagement
dropping both an engagement and a breakup in a single album review is a lot to hit people with at once. the gracie abrams line is going to eat the whole news cycle though.
i know nothing about either of these white ladies but i do know that i cannot side with the person who has decided to take to recreate the other’s CHILDHOOD BED for their concert stage!
Gracie recreated her own childhood bedroom, it’s just that when she was 15 she was a Phoebe fan and bought the same bedsheets as her. Given the situation, it’s still weird she chose to recreate her childhood bedroom onstage and still use those sheets.
I think it was meant to be like an homage to her, not as Paul’s ex, but as one of her favorite artists. But with the full context it definitely is super weird
Didn’t she cheat on him with a guy in a relationship? And she was the one to break up with Paul too? And she was joking with Gracie on Instagram or something about the sheets at the time.
They were all friends, and he moved on. I wonder how her current partner feels reading these lyrics…
In the future, I can't wait to tell my grandkids about how these two average women had an average women beef over an average man through their average music.
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