There’s a big reason why Zendaya keeps teasing fans with rumor about ‘marriage’ to Tom Holland
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During a “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” appearance on March 16, she revealed that “many people” in her life were mad about not being invited to the wedding after AI-generated photos online seemingly showed her and Holland getting hitched.
And while Holland was not spotted with Zendaya at the Oscars on March 15, where she and Pattinson presented the Best Director award to Paul Thomas Anderson (“One Battle After Another”), her massive engagement diamond was accompanied by a gold band that sure looked like a wedding ring.
One celebrity branding expert called it all calculated “catnip.”
“They’re genuflecting back to the tricks of the trade of the [old Hollywood] studio days,” Mark Borkowski said of Zendaya and her team, including Roach. “It’s remaining in control … If you’re really realistic, you know your moment is transient. In modern terms, it’s what we all try to do with publicity: bewitch the algorithm.
“What she’s done recently is found a way of churning a narrative into cultural gossip without ever looking like it’s marketing or a hard sell,” Borkowski told Page Six. “She’s got this new product and she leans into the rumors around Tom Holland — but never declares it.”
Indeed, even her stylist admits the tease is equal parts something old and something new.