Splash News published a photo on Monday that reportedly shows a giant black box being gently carried to a waiting SUV, alleging in the caption that Taylor Swift might be inside. Let’s unpack.
Spin1038 pointed out the caption, which reads:
Taylor Swift being transported in a huge suitcase from her Tribecca apartment into her truck. A fleet of cars including two large cadillacs and three suv’s arrive at Tailor Swift’s apartment in Tribecca to move a large suitcase from apartment to truck. Almost a dozen of Taylor Swift security guards were present to move this package carefully as Taylor Swift remains to be unseen for a long time.
Hard to know what to believe. That man on the far right looks super casual. His hands are in his pockets, and he appears to be whistling or blowing out a huge stream of air, as one does when one is relaxed and not worried about Taylor Swift being locked in a giant black box.
This could also be a misunderstanding. The grammar in the caption is strange, and it’s possible the writer didn’t mean to imply Swift was literally inside the suitcase. Maybe it simply meant Swift’s very valuable belongings are being carefully moved to wherever she is waiting for them, perhaps while sitting in a chair or on a rock like a human woman does.
Alternately, perhaps there’s another explanation altogether—that Swift slumbers in the box, eternally damned, neither living nor dead, waiting to be unleashed so that she may manifest her power. You decide:
Update, 4:30 pm: Andy Cush, formerly of Gawker, reports at Spin that the caption was a mistake, according to a representative at Splash:
The Splash representative, who declined to be identified by name, said that the Swift shutterberg was “not really a regular photographer that we use,” and had made the claim about Taylor being inside the suitcase without personally verifying it. “The report stated it as a fact, which we actually don’t know,” he continued. “How could we?”
The representative pointed to a previously existing fan theory about Taylor entering and exiting her apartment inside of a box to avoid paparazzi, and suggested that the photographer assumed that the theory was true upon seeing the suitcase carried outside of her home.