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There are very few secrets in the age of social media.
In fact, the days of blind items — gossip stories in which key details are revealed, but the names are kept under wraps — are basically a thing of the past. It’s just too easy nowadays for amateur online detectives to piece together the whole picture.
And that’s a lesson that Reese Witherspoon might be learning the hard way this week.
Reese Witherspoon attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Reese Says a Bit Too Much
The trouble began during a joint interview with Reese and Will Ferrell.
The co-stars are promoting their new movie, You’re Cordially Invited, and they sat down for a conversation in which Reese might’ve revealed more than she intended to while sharing the story of a former friend who no longer speaks to her.
“It literally haunts me,” Witherspoon told Ferrell in a piece that was published in People on Thursday.
“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.”
Kate Winslet and Reese Witherspoon present on stage at the 88th Oscars on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
Reese went on to explain that she “had never been” to that particular awards ceremony, and she mistakenly “thought was like a roast.”
“So I got up and I roasted her,” she recalled.
Unfortunately, “the tone was British and elegant and classy. And I was like, ‘Remember the time we got laser hair removal?!’” The joke, it seems, went over like a lead balloon.
“We’re not friends anymore. I’m not even kidding — we’re not friends anymore. I think she doesn’t like me anymore,” Witherspoon went on.
Reese Witherspoon and Kate Winslet arrive at the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton on January 15, 2007 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
“I thought it was so funny, and it was just, I had the wrong audience. It was pretty bad. I’m not even kidding, she doesn’t talk to me anymore. Oh, well.”
Has the Offended Brit Identity Been Revealed?
Now, the celebrity gossip site Just Jared is reporting that a bunch of internet detectives have figured out that the irate former friend is none other than Kate Winslet.
They point out that Reese presented Kate with an artist of the year award at the 2007 BAFTA/LA Cunard Britannia Awards.
Actresses Kate Winslet and Reese Witherspoon speak onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“I always wanted to be a European movie star, wear giant sunglasses, elaborate neck scarves, smoke hand-rolled cigarettes and have savoir-faire and gravitas,” Reese quipped to the crowd that fateful day.
“Imagine my good fortune when Kate Winslet moved into my neighborhood, rang my doorbell and said, ‘Darling, Sam [Mendes] is off shooting, and I believe our children are the same age. Could they possibly have a play date and oh, by the way, it’s almost 9 o’clock and I’ve had nothing to do drink, do you have any wine?’”
Witherspoon later joked that she wanted to tell more tales of her adventures with Kate, but they were “too bawdy or tawdry or drunken to tell,” including the time they “contemplated laser hair removal.”
There are other theories floating around, with some claiming that Reese was referring to Nicole Kidman (unlikely, as Kidman is Australian, and Reese described the award show vibe as “very British), but Kate seems like the most obvious culprit.
And now that she’s been dragged into this little mini-controversy, Kate has one more reason to be angry at Reese!
