In case you missed it (and you probably didn't), multiplatinum-selling pop-country queen Taylor Swift showed up to a fan's bridal shower in Ohio last week, whipping the media and public into a star-exalting tizzy.
So what was it like to hang with T. Swift in (gasp!) real life? We chatted with Maddy Wyman, one of the illustrious bridal shower attendees, to find out.
First, let it be known that Swift, Wyman says, "is adorable." So that settles that! After Swift casually sauntered in, the group apparently sat stunned in silence, then gasped. "And then people started to stand and take some pictures of her and (shower honoree/superfan) Gena hugging," Wyman says.
Since this was Swift's first bridal shower—the mega-pop princess is still a wee young lass of 24, let's not forget—she kept asking what people did at a bridal shower, and even brought the invite Gena sent her to prove she was invited (see? adorable!).
And while some have groused that Swift may have passed by for a quick PR stunt, she actually stayed two hours, watched Gena open all her presents and played the shower game with everyone else. She even brought cookies she baked a few days before with Gracie Gold, the Olympic ice skater.
So basically, she enjoyed herself like a normal human being at a normal human being event. Which wouldn't seem so newsworthy except, well...it's Taylor Swift, OMG!
Wyman says the freak-out reaction may have something to do with Swift's arguably rare, well, niceness, which stands out in a pop landscape littered with middle-finger-flashing, bucket-peeing rudeness.
I feel it got a lot of media attention because nowadays celebrities seem to be on a different level. You have the people like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus who don't seem to be the best role models who are always in the media for doing something horrible. So then for a celebrity to just show up unannounced to a fan's shower, shows her in such a light that it makes this event stand out.
There's also the simple fact that us mere mortals tend to assume celebrities are other-worldy creatures who don't do pedestrian things like go grocery shopping, ride bikes, drink coffee, eat food or drive—to cite but a few examples that routinely grace the pages of Us Magazine's ridiculous "Stars—They're Just Like Us!" coverage.
Wyman, a Swift superfan herself, points out that the star is ultimately just a girl. An annoyingly pretty and preternaturally talented girl, sure, but still just a girl.
"I'm not quite sure why people don't expect celebs to be 'normal,'" Wyman muses. "Maybe the thought that they are worth a certain about of money, or the idea that they can usually get whatever they want in the world, makes people feel that they would be different than anybody else." According to Wyman, Swift is "a person who could be friends with 'non-famous people' and it'd be a completely normal friendship."
Or at least as normal as a friendship could ever be with a Grammy-winning superstar who bakes cookies with Olympians and flies to Ohio in between sold-out concerts.
Image courtesy of Maddy Wyman (on the right)
