Hung Up was linked in this LA Times story about J.Lo and this Washington Post Style newsletter! Woohoo!
There are normal celebrity divorce announcements, polite but terse. Your run-of-the-mill “It is with a great deal of care and consideration that we have made the difficult decision to divorce” or “Over the past few months we’ve come to the conclusion that the best way forward for us as a family is to separate as a couple.” There are even the woo-woo Hollywood divorce announcements, like Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux’s kind-of-kooky-but-I-like-it “We are two best friends who have decided to part ways as a couple, but look forward to continuing our cherished friendship.” And then there is Isla Fisher’s divorce announcement.
Fisher, 48, and Sacha Baron Cohen, 52, are no more.1 On Friday, Fisher announced that she has been released from her 14-year sentence the separation. She posted what looks like a throwback photo of herself and Baron Cohen donning tennis gear with a brief message: “After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down. In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage. We have always prioritized our privacy, and have been quietly working through this change. We forever share in our devotion to and love for our children. We sincerely appreciate your respecting our family’s wish for privacy.”
The first thing you should know about this photo is that she looks great in it.
A source told People that this wasn’t the first time they’d contemplated divorce. Another source told Us Weekly that it had nothing to do with the Rebel Wilson book. “They have been living separate lives since last year but wanted to give this space and time for their children to be OK with this before the news came out and they got all this attention,” that “insider close to the estranged couple” said. Would they have really gotten a lot of attention? Announcing your divorce in a story post and not a Notes app — created to write down half-remembered dreams and sentences beginning “some personal news” — basically ensures all this attention.
When Madeline of
fame sent a screenshot to me, I thought: “Challegers promo going crazy.” Then I thought “While we’re on the subject of tennis: Is there a US Open box someone wants to invite me to? :)” And then I thought: No, really, posting a great photo of yourself and a totally fine photo of your ex? This woman is a trailblazer.When I think of Isla Fisher I think of her freezing her credit card in Confessions of a Shopaholic, which I saw in theaters with my dad like two days after it opened. When I think of Sacha Baron Cohen I think of everything Rebel Wilson has said about him.2 I do not think of tennis, and/or did not realize these two people were tennis connoisseurs. Was Fisher thinking about tennis? Had she just been playing tennis? Have they ever been to, I don’t know, a grand slam? Taking another look at the image, it really doesn’t even look like they have played tennis or are about to play tennis. They appear to be inside and the sky appears to be dark outside in the background. Maybe it was Halloween? I think I’m overthinking this. The Nike swoop is positioned so perfectly at the end of that message I hope my sister cashed an Air check. That the text is placed over him and not centered over the two of them … she’s taking it. This is the greatest breakup announcement Offset said “Yall won.” Describing one’s divorce as “finally putting our racquets down” is an inspired way to break the news. It could only have been better if Fisher ended it with “Deuces ✌“
Devoted Hung Up readers will recall that there is nothing more powerful than a divorced woman. “I, famously, love divorced women and hope to become one one day,” I wrote in July 2021. “There is so much good art about this — I’m talking about the type of woman who rebuilds herself, regrows herself, remakes herself in her own image, and not the one of her marriage (think: An Unmarried Woman, Waiting to Exhale, Under The Tuscan Sun, Wild, the part of the Eat, Pray, Love trailer where Florence and the Machine plays and Julia Roberts talks about being in a relationship with her pizza).” Gwyneth Paltrow is divorced. My mom is divorced. The most revered album of Beyoncé’s career came as she contemplated divorce. Divorced women and hot, dumb jocks are our country’s greatest renewable resources. We would be nowhere without them.
Meanwhile:
Andrew Garfield is dating an expensive psychic/witch to the stars. (Gossip Time)
Why didn’t I write about this last week? I can’t remember! But here’s
again: “Is Leo DiCaprio engaged? Haha well” (Gossip Time)Lastly: me + Tefi + Adweek!
Have a good weekend! I’ll leave you with this perfect tweet and this even more perfect follow-up :)
Really, really unfortunate and sorry that I have to take it here but: Sacha Baron Cohen is no longer with his wifeeee.
If you, like me, wondered if any of this was discussed on the set of Bachelorette, the movie Fisher starred in with Wilson, it likely was not. Bachelorette came out in 2012; Wilson and Baron Cohen were in The Brothers Grimsby, which came out in 2016.
And I didn't even get to see her reaction to the Dun3 (Dune three) confirmation. :(
I guess they’re WimbleDONE. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also the phrasing of "long tennis match" making it seem like they were competing against each other and not a team playing together.... lol