Ariana Grande thanked Botox while accepting an award.
Was she serious or joking? Maybe both.
Though she has hit back at body-shamers before, Ariana offered a shout-out to two anti-aging treatments on stage.
However, she then went on to clarify that she is now “clean.”
The Rising Star Award goes to … Ariana Grande?
On Friday, January 3, Ariana Grande received the Rising Star award at the Palm Springs International Film Awards
It was a bit odd. Ariana has been acting since she was a child. She was a Nickelodeon star about 15 years ago, and was on Broadway before that. She has also been a household name for years and years.
“I never thought at the age of 31 I would be hearing the words ‘rising star’ again,” Ariana acknowledged while accepting her award. “So I wanted to start by thanking my two friends: Botox and Juvederm.”
Later, Ariana took to the red carpet, where she spoke to Entertainment Tonight — as you can see below.
“Oh my gosh, my joke,” she said excitedly, laughing as she referred to the on-stage tribute as “my bit.”
To be fair, she also pretended that her award weighed enough to overbalance her when receiving it from Jennifer Coolidge. Ariana is an extremely funny person, so this joke about her face fits well with her brand.
Ariana Grande clarifies that she is ‘clean’ when it comes to Botox
“I’m still clean, I’m still clean,” Ariana clarified, using comedic phrasing. Clean generally refers to addictive substances such as alcohol or prescription painkillers.
“But when I start going again, I’ll let you know,” she added. “I mean it. I really want to be transparent as a beauty founder, as the founder of R.E.M. Beauty.”
After plugging the name of her beauty brand, Ariana expressed: “I think it’s important to have transparency.”
“I love it, I support it,” Ariana Grande then emphasized of things like Botox and fillers. “But I am still four years clean.”
Previously, she has described herself as having gone “cold turkey” in 2018 on things like lip filler and other injectible cosmetic treatments. That’s a little beyond her four-year timeline.
Either way, she’s making it clear that she supports people who use these treatments. It’s just that Ariana herself no longer does.
Is ‘Rising Star’ really the right award?
Though Ariana Grande had a stellar performance as Glinda in Wicked (she made me sob at one point), her fame is not new. Award presenter (and Ariana’s friend) Jennifer Coolidge remarked on just that.
“I don’t want to argue with the Palm Springs power gays or their little 19-year-old handsome dates,” Jennifer Coolidge admitted, “but I just thought rising star? Hasn’t Ariana Grande already risen?”
She pointed out: “I mean, the girl’s barely 30 and it feels like she’s been famous since the Eisenhower administration.”
Every part of that quote has been rattling around in our brains every since.