With one single snap of a photo, the very notion of Bizarro World’s existence was affirmed on July 25th when senior writer for The Cut Gabriella Paiella posted a side-by-side comparison of Mary-Kate Olsen walking with Olivier Sarkozy and his daughter back in 2012 (when news of the relationship first broke) and Grimes walking much more happily and complacently with Elon Musk and his son in the now. More than just the age difference between each couple being the same, there is something eerily similar about the way in which these two “artsy fartsy” women have given in to the ultimate waif’s accessory: a rich daddy type.
Incidentally, Grimes’ metaphorical kidnapping (which is a pun when applied to Mary-Kate next to Olivier) seems to suit her much more than it does Mary-Kate, ambling resentfully as she bitterly smokes a cigarette all dressed in black (she might have mastered how to be a French woman better than any actual French woman) in the now notorious photo in question. At the time twenty-six to Olivier’s forty-three, the image set tongues wagging for its creep factor.
While the same pose in Grimes and Elon Musk form might not be quite so scandalous because Musk paid to look roughly thirty-four years old despite possessing the same questionable age difference of being seventeen years her senior, it is unnerving nonetheless. The reconstructed pose also includes the seemingly carefree and oblivious child, not even remotely cognizant of just how fucked up Daddy’s predilections are.
At the very least, however, Mary-Kate maintained some semblance of her identity as she entered the fold of the international banking elite. On the other hand, in the Bizarro World incarnation of Mary-Kate and Olivier, Grimes’ sartorial shift to something resembling the reject pile from J. Crew or Gap further suggests Musk has managed to complete her bodysnatching by a Martian (technology Britney Spears could, alas, never perfect).
Other sinister additions to the tableau re-creating the scene from 2012 include a private plane in the background and Grimes throwing up a sign of the horns (is she secretly telling us she’s in league with the devil? Ah but then, that’s not really a secret) with a scrunchie around her wrist. Grimes’ enthusiasm is indicative of a far seedier underbelly to the relationship than Mary-Kate’s overt aloofness to any man that might happen to be her boyfriend. ‘Tis merely the faux ecstaticness of Bizarro World.
