News of Kristen Stewart and St. Vincent taking a stroll in New York had Twitter abuzz with power-couple origin-story excitement this week. Had ever a cooler potential duo tangoed into the public eye? But no sooner had St. Kriscent debuted than it emerged that Abbi Jacobson and Carrie Brownstein are also spending time together. Has your brain exploded yet? Because THEN it came out that Rosie O’Donnell broke bread with none other than Ivanka Trump recently.
It’s truly been a landmark week for notable white women hanging out together. What is this, Sex and the City? Here, an attempt to break down the significance of each meeting.
Kristen Stewart and St. Vincent
The players: Kristen Stewart is an actress best known for her starring role in the Twilight movies. She is punk as hell and likes to scowl on the red carpet, even though that punkness didn’t extend to turning down a Woody Allen movie. A few years ago, she famously dated (and famously cheated on) co-star Rob Pattinson, to Donald Trump’s dismay. She was a lesbian icon even before she publicly dated women, as she has for the past few years, and now she’s all the more so. St. Vincent, the stage name for Annie Clark, is an indie-cool singer-songwriter. She previously dated the model Cara Delevingne, and it was a big deal.
The setting: The streets of NYC for the New York Film Festival, where Stewart’s latest is screening.
The context: Romantic??? Stewart hasn’t been seen with her previous girlfriend for weeks, and now that she’s just walking around New York wearing almost matching outfits with another woman, what else could it be but <3 love?
Significance: High. So high. These two are important.
Abbi Jacobson and Carrie Brownstein
The players: Abbi Jacobson is one of the stars and creators of Broad City, the Comedy Central show about two best friends’ wacky adventures in New York. On the show, she plays the “straight man” to co-star Ilana Glazer’s zanier, and more sexually fluid, character. Though one Slate staffer told me that her “gaydar always pinged like crazy” for Jacobson, this is the first time she’s been rumored to be romantically linked with a woman. That woman is Carrie Brownstein, one-time member of the band Sleater-Kinney, current star of Portlandia, and culturally significant queer lady. Like, she didn’t have much to do in the movie Carol, but she had to be in it, because she’s that important a queer person.*
The setting: Portland, that dreamscape of comedy inspiration where women and their dogs can roam free.
The context: Romantic, it seems! Jacobson posted a picture of Brownstein on Instagram last week, and Autostraddle half-in-jest-half-for-real reported “canoodling.”
Significance: Also very high! For the Carrie Brownstein factor and Abbi confirmation-of-hunch factor!
Rosie O’Donnell and Ivanka Trump
The players: Rosie O’Donnell has been part of the national discourse lately because Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is mad at her for something she said 10 years ago and won’t let it go. Wednesday night, a new development:
In her usual poetic way, Rosie publicly thanked Trump’s daughter Ivanka for apparently treating her like a human being when the two had a chance encounter.
The setting: Not a synagogue, as Rosie’s Rosh Hashanah–referencing tweet seemed to imply, but a place considered equally holy by some: Nobu, the high-end New York sushi restaurant.
The context: Political. Ivanka must have had the sense not to call Rosie a “fat pig” or similar when she and O’Donnell met, something her father hasn’t managed. But Ivanka is a complicated figure in her own right, more palatable than her father in some ways but just as formidable.
Significance: Unclear if this will lead to a full Trump-O’Donnell détente or a more temporary ceasefire. But O’Donnell acted graciously, so count this as one more win for lesbians this week.
*Correction, Oct. 6, 2016: This post originally misstated that Carrie Brownstein is a lesbian. She has identified in the past as bisexual and now avoids publicly defining herself.
