{"id":300884,"date":"2025-11-22T06:21:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/300884\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T06:21:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:21:04","slug":"celebrity-crib-sheet-cynthia-erivo-and-ariana-grande-are-back-on-the-red-carpet-here-are-seven-things-you-need-to-know-ariana-grande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/300884\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity crib sheet: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are back on the red carpet \u2013 here are seven things you need to know | Ariana Grande"},"content":{"rendered":"

It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve never seen the musical, have no interest in the film or are left cold by red carpets: Wicked season is here again, and you will be made to pay attention. After last year\u2019s chaotic press tour for the first instalment, giving rise to some of 2025\u2019s biggest and most bizarre pop culture moments, all eyes are now on the rollout of the sequel Wicked: For Good<\/a> and the theatre-kid capers of its stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

1. They are still \u2018holding space\u2019 for one another \u2026
Last year\u2019s Wicked press tour was an infamous love-in for Grande and Erivo. Such was the intensity of their connection and mutual affection, both were frequently moved to tears in interviews. The enduring image was of Erivo stroking Grande\u2019s index finger in response to a journalist\u2019s unintelligible remark about people \u201cholding space\u201d with the song Defying Gravity. Grande poked fun at her and Erivo\u2019s histrionics, declaring them \u201cinsufferable\u201d and \u201cthe most annoying\u201d \u2013 but their bond still appears unbreakable. At the New York premiere of Wicked: For Good on Monday, Erivo declined to give interviews to preserve her voice. Grande was reported to also be skipping press \u201cin solidarity\u201d, but couldn\u2019t help plugging her costar\u2019s forthcoming projects \u201cas Erivo looked on smiling\u201d, as CNN described the scene<\/a>. Asked what they were feeling, ahead of the film\u2019s final instalment, Grande spoke for them both: \u201coverwhelming gratitude\u201d. Late on Thursday, she tested positive for Covid.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Erivo has lost her voice and will not be doing interviews at the \u2018Wicked: For Good\u2019 premiere in New York tonight, Variety reports.<\/p>\n

Ariana Grande will also be skipping interviews in solidarity. pic.twitter.com\/UYgayrrMNt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 17, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

2. \u2026 and, often, \u2018holding a hand\u2019
The sight of two accomplished thirtysomething women compulsively fussing over each other, gushing and otherwise behaving like teenagers has sparked much speculation online. Erivo and Grande share not one, not two, but four matching Wicked<\/a> tattoos, including \u201cFor good\u201d on their inside palms. The most \u201cintense\u201d one has not been shared with the public, Grande told the Today Show last year. This week, on Amy Poehler\u2019s Good Hang podcast, Grande laughed off Poehler\u2019s comment about her and Erivo\u2019s touchy-feely relationship, saying that they were only looking \u201cto take care of each other\u201d. \u201cI channel a lot of energy through my hands,\u201d Grande said. \u201cI\u2019m always holding a hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. At least one \u2018fan\u2019 has taken it too far<\/p>\n

Erivo stepped in to protect Grande when a fan rushed towards her on the red carpet in Singapore. Photograph: The Straits Times\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

At last week\u2019s Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good<\/a>, an Australian man vaulted the red-carpet barricade and rushed to tackle Grande. Video footage showed Erivo instantly stepping in to shield her before the assailant was pinned by security. He was later identified as 26-year-old Johnson Wen, a self-described \u201ctroll\u201d who has built an online profile around disrupting public events. After his arrest, Wen posted footage on Instagram of him grabbing Grande with the caption: \u201cDear Ariana Grande Thank You for letting me Jump on the Yellow Carpet with You \u2764\ufe0f\u201d, which was widely condemned by commenters. On Monday, he was charged with being a public nuisance and sentenced to nine days in prison.<\/p>\n

4. Grande and Slater are \u2018doing great!!!\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Ethan Slater with Grande at the New York premiere. Photograph: Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Grande\u2019s partner, actor and singer Ethan Slater, also appears in Wicked: For Good. The pair met in December 2022 while working on the first film, and reportedly got together while both were still married (Grande to real estate broker Dalton Gomez; Slater to therapist Lilly Jay, who went on to publish a thinly veiled essay<\/a> about her experience of the split). Grande and Slater have regularly featured on each other\u2019s social media. In promoting Wicked: For Good, however, they have not done any press together and have appeared far apart in group shots, prompting persistent speculation of a split. Sources \u201cclose to the couple\u201d recently felt moved to shoot down the rumours, telling TMZ that<\/a> \u201ceverything\u2019s great between them, and \u2026 they always make time for each other\u201d.<\/p>\n

5. The film is turning stars vegan \u2018for good\u2019<\/p>\n

Jonathan Bailey has been \u2018encouraged\u2019 to follow a plant-based diet, like his costars. Photograph: Bruce Glikas\/WireImage<\/p>\n

Jeff Goldblum, who plays The Wizard of Oz, recently told This Morning<\/a> that working on the film \u2013 which deals with themes of animal cruelty \u2013 led him to give up eating meat. Grande and Erivo are both longtime vegans, while Michelle Yeoh follows a \u201cplant-based diet\u201d, emboldening Peta to target their co-star Jonathan Bailey. In a somewhat laboured PR stunt, the animal rights organisation sent Bailey a bottle of non-dairy Baileys (Baileys for Bailey, geddit?) in the hopes of encouraging him to \u201cjoin the vegan side of his Wicked family, and let the plant-based magic begin!\u201d Bailey has not yet engaged, but did, however, praise the film\u2019s message of tolerance (and expressed hope that it would reach the men who had bullied him at school).<\/p>\n

6. The yellow-brick road is paved with gold \u2026
As Bailey crowingly suggested, his former bullies may well have \u201ctickets for opening night\u201d. In the UK, advance tickets to Wicked: For Good were selling at more than twice the rate of the first film, according to Vue. Odeon had likewise sold more than 250,000 presale tickets as of Wednesday, almost double what it sold for part one. Whether you intend to see it or not, the film has been inescapable in endless product tie-ins (including, notably, Robinsons \u201cAmazafying\u201d Elphaba-green squash). Last month, the US version of Dancing With the Stars landed its first-ever movie tie-in with \u201cWicked Night\u201d, featuring the films\u2019 choreographer. This week, London\u2019s Brick Lane was paved with promotional yellow bricks<\/a> above a Tracey Emin-type light installation, holding space for lyrics from the song, For Good. No wonder Grande has kept the door open for a third movie to be somehow adapted from the musical, recently saying: \u201cThere\u2019s always a farewell tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

7. \u2026 and may be leading Grande away from music
Grande revealed to Amy Poehler that her upcoming tour<\/a> \u2013 her first in seven years, and finally promoting her 2024 album Eternal Sunshine \u2013 will likely be her last for a \u201clong, long, long, long time\u201d. Grande\u2019s description of it as a \u201clast hurrah\u201d won\u2019t be welcomed by her fan army of Arianators, but tracks with her move away from pop since Wicked. Not only is she being hotly tipped for an Oscar nomination for Wicked: For Good, Grande will star alongside Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in the Meet the Fockers threequel Focker-in-Law, scheduled for release next November. In the meantime, she has cultivated other interests, telling Poehler<\/a> that she has got into birdwatching via the Merlin app<\/a>, which she declared \u201cfabulous\u201d. The next string she would like to add to her bow is the study of insects. \u201cI wish I were a person who, like, had endless entomology knowledge,\u201d she said. \u201cI could look at a bug and be like, \u2018Ah, Lepidoptera pieridae\u2019.\u201d Arianators may be well advised not to hold their breath for an eighth album.<\/p>\n