Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry’s Grammy “appearance” was an AI fever dream
No, the couple did not go full Addams family on the red carpet
We’re in a renewed moment of celebrity couples dressing alike. Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner wore matching Day-Glo tangerine at the Marty Supreme premiere. ASAP Rocky recently confessed that he and Rihanna sported matching jammies for their family Christmas card. And then, last night, Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau seemed to have showed up on the Grammy red carpet doing their very best impression of the Addams family: he in head-to-toe black, she in full Morticia mode, including a black-lace gown and hair extensions that looked like cast-offs from Elvira.
Related: Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry are still going strong, at the World Economic Forum
To see the couple at music’s biggest night wouldn’t have been a huge shock. Perry was neither performing nor nominated, but she is a huge pop star, and if we’re talking about places you wouldn’t have expected to see this particular duo, Perry’s recent appearance in Davos surely ranks higher. With all of that politicking out of the way, it’s only natural that they might want to enjoy a goth-inspired date night.
Related: Spotted—Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau on a date
Only it turns out that the photos were fake—generated by AI with some fairly telltale red flags, including a dubious Getty Images watermark and a photo credit for a guy who doesn’t appear to exist. The images seem to have originated from a Perry fan account, though the motivations (economic? vampire fan fiction?) are unclear.
The fashion media has clearly come to expect this kind of hoax: Perry and Trudeau didn’t appear in any of the Grammy fashion roundups, suggesting that either the dupes were incredibly obvious or that style arbiters weren’t feeling the whole his-and-hers sexy funeral vibes.
Either way, this unsanctioned fabrication is just the latest Trudeau-related AI run-in, and it’s probably a step up from the last one: an Equinox ad that showed him pole-dancing in a pair of pumps.
Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
