‘We laughed about this stupidity’: Reese Witherspoon has turned the internet into detectives
A Reese Witherspoon feud? What a great distraction from the current state of the world! What happened? Who else was involved? Bring on the tea.
Unfortunately, Witherspoon didn’t outright name the person she’d fallen out with when she first got talking about the incident. “It literally haunts me,” she told People magazine while promoting her new film, You’re Cordially Invited, with Will Ferrell. “So this friend of mine, who I didn’t really know that well but she was a very serious, proper actress, she asked me to give her an award. But I had never been to this award ceremony, so I thought it was like a roast. So I got up and I roasted her.”
The other actress did not take kindly to this. “I was like, ‘Remember the time we got laser hair removal?’” Witherspoon remembered saying at the “classy” event. “I’m still embarrassed about it,” she revealed.
“We’re not friends anymore. I’m not even kidding — we’re not friends anymore,” she went on. “I think she doesn’t like me anymore. I thought it was so funny and it was just, I had the wrong audience. It was pretty bad. Yeah. Not even kidding, she doesn’t talk to me anymore. Oh well.”
Of course, the internet immediately went into overdrive trying to find out just who Witherspoon had so grievously insulted. The crucial detail there was “laser hair removal.” Internet detectives were able to trace those words back to an article reposted on a Reese Witherspoon fan site in 2007. “Laser hair removal” is one of the things Witherspoon talked about while presenting an award to none other than Kate Winslet.
The event in question was the BAFTA/LA Cunard Britannia Awards in November 2007, and Witherspoon shared on that stage that she was keeping her personal anecdotes about Winslet to herself, as they were “all too bawdy or tawdry or drunken to tell.” But laser hair removal was definitely in there, as was Witherspoon praising Winslet for, “pee[ing] all over herself in front of Harvey Keitel” in Holy Smoke. The internet was certain of it: The actress Witherspoon pissed off had to be Winslet.
But, here’s where things take a turn. Witherspoon denies it! She posted to her Instagram Stories yesterday (via Page Six), writing: “Hey guys … just spoke to my very dear friend for years, Kate W,” she wrote alongside a headline about the aforementioned detective work. “We laughed about this stupidity. Please do not believe the internet. We are good friends and have never had any falling out.”
And yet, everything adds up to the unnamed actress being Winslet. The awards ceremony, the laser hair removal comment, the accidental roasting… What else could Witherspoon possibly have been talking about? Was it a different actress entirely who she just happened to present an award to and make a comment about laser hair removal at?! The denial from Witherspoon just doesn’t seem legit, and you’ve got to wonder if it was some sort of damage control.
It would be interesting to hear from Winslet herself about all this, but it appears she’s keeping mum. Either way, it appears that Witherspoon and Winslet are definitely still friends, if that’s what you were worried about.
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