Fan Reactions to the Kardashians’ ‘Wicked’ Viewing Party Signal Unhealthy Relationships with Celebrities

In case you missed it, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo set up a private Wicked viewing party for the Kardashian-Jenner family in late October. Kim Kardashian took to her Instagram story to show off this exciting event, but fans’ reactions were mixed. Not only were fans feeling uncomfortable due to the KarJenners’ display of wealth, but they also took to the internet to ask some parasocial questions about personal conversations between Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian.

Some fans of the Wicked franchise were mad, calling the move a horrible campaigning strategy; promoting a movie by displaying it to one, highly-privileged family proved disheartening. One user on X commented, “why didn’t they set up a private screening of wicked in a musical theatre school for kids in a low income neighborhood or something.” The tweet garnered many replies that were in agreement; people are sick of the gluttony coming from rich celebrities.

While the event garnered several critiques as a whole, many people were more interested in the relationship between Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian. Since the two stars are linked by an ex-boyfriend/ex-fiancé, Pete Davidson, the internet wanted to know if they addressed the elephant in the room. People have even gone as far as to tweet updates about their statuses of following each other on Instagram.

This weird parasocial obsession with celebrities’ relationships doesn’t just start and stop with the interest in the Grande-Kardashian-Davidson triangle. We’ve been seeing it time and time again that fans are overly obsessed with A-list couples, like Zendaya and Tom Holland, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, and many more. These celebrity couples and friends can’t share sweet moments without the entire internet swarming in on their space. Take, for example, these intrusive photos of Zendaya and Tom Holland swapping books while on a trip together.

The rhetoric surrounding this recent Wicked screening at the Kardashians was another example of aggressively parasocial relationships the public can develop with celebrities. The discourse serves as an important reminder to take a step back—the conversations behind other people’s closed doors don’t belong to our ears.