As the 91st Academy Awards rolled on last Sunday, there was one unfurling story that was somewhat lost amidst all the controversy and excitement. Spike Lee finally won an Oscar for BlacKkKlansman, Rami Malek picked up a Best Actor gong for his role in Bohemian Rhapsody, while Green Book was named Best Picture and everyone got upset.
But, as Mahershala Ali and the rest of the Green Book crew accepted their Oscar win, it might have been worth looking back to one of the musical performances. Lady Gaga won an Oscar for Best Original Song for Shallow, featured in A Star Is Born, but the real story here was her performance of the song at the Oscars.
Wow. Did it just get hot in here? The chemistry between Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper was clear during the film, and it's just as clear here, and as the singer called off her engagement to Christian Carino, people were quick to stoke the fire: are these two on their way to becoming an item?
Irina Shayk, Bradley Cooper's current girlfriend, seems to be okay with it, but one of Bradley Cooper's exes has been forced to defend herself after her short comment on an Instagram post about the relationship rumours swirling around.
One celebrity who's especially interested in Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's potential romance is David Spade - the comedian of Don't Shoot Me and Emperor's New Groove fame. Posting a picture of the two artists performing, Spade said: "'Is there any chance these 2 aren’t f***ing?"
Spade's post got more than 100,000 likes, as Cooper-Gaga fever continues to sweep the internet. But one person who's less enthused was Jennifer Esposito, who in response simply posted "Ha" underneath Spade's post.
Esposito, who was married to Bradley Cooper for six months from their wedding in December 2006, says she's suffered from a ton of social media backlash following that one-word comment to that Instagram post, and it's gotten so bad that Esposito has been forced to come out and defend herself.
"I get off a flight to see a comment I made of 'HA' to a joke from @DavidSpade has gone wild!?" Esposito wrote on Twitter. "Has everyone gone mad? Somehow I’m insulting an X by laughing at a joke someone else made? Pls take your insanity elsewhere."
Esposito then took the time in a follow-up video on Instagram to urge people to focus on other problems in the world, instead of getting upset at her for posting about her ex on Instagram.
"When you come and attack a person for saying 'Ha'... We have many so things going on in our country and in our world that need attention, and I wish that you'd spend even a minute of this insanity of nonsense on things that are really important ... the world is in a crazy place, please go do something positive."
Esposito also slammed the social media landscape for the backlash, adding that the mob nature often seen on social media platforms "is why people don't speak up on so many situations".