On her album folklore, Taylor Swift insists that “the greatest films of all time were never made.” But that can’t possibly be true now that Christmas in the Spotlight, Lifetime’s blatant attempt to capitalize on Swift’s romance with NFL tight-end Travis Kelce, has debuted. The made-for-TV movie premiered on Saturday, just a week before Hallmark airs its own nod to the high-profile relationship: Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, out November 30.
While Hallmark’s project boasts a cameo from Travis’s actual mother, Donna Kelce—and has the support of his Kansas City home team—it’s the Lifetime movie that borrows most from the real-life romance. Jessica Lord plays a pop star called Bowyn Sykes, apparently so named expressly so that “Bow’s” fans can be called arrow-heads—a nod to the Chiefs stadium, as well as a lyric in Swift’s song “Cornelia Street.” Laith Wallschleger plays a pro football player named Drew “Gonzo” Gonville; Bowyn wisely opts to call Drew by his given first name, and I will follow suit. The couple feels a little more like Tate McRae and Rob Gronkowski than Taylor and Travis, but no matter—they still get together when the fictional athlete publicly shoots his shot with the singer after attending her concert.
Ahead, a breakdown of every Easter egg in the Taylor and Travis-inspired Lifetime movie, from a boisterous brother who feels a lot like Jason Kelce to an actor ex-boyfriend accused of never walking the red carpet with his A-list girlfriend.
The Number 13
Naturally, the number that has become synonymous with Swift (“Hi, I’m Taylor. I love the number 13. I was born in December on a Christmas tree farm,” a bio of the singer once read) pops up in the movie. It’s not only Drew’s number on the fictional Bombers football team, but—wouldn’t you know it—Bowyn was 13 when she began performing. The film also has a few other nods to specific Swiftisms, including her love of cats and friendship bracelets, which fans began trading on her Eras Tour after being inspired by a lyric in her song “You’re on Your Own Kid.” Kelce said he planned to give Swift a friendship bracelet with his number on it at her Kansas City show.
A Paine-fully Swift Manager
Bowyn’s exact level of fame within the film is a bit confusing. She’s referred to as the “biggest pop star in the world,” yet can eat at restaurants or drive to clandestine meetings with Drew relatively undetected. (Swift can’t even get to the stage of her own concerts without a disguise.) What does ring true is that Bowyn would rely on a trusted manager (played by Jeannie Mai Jenkins) to help her decide that dating a fellow public figure is the right move. There are no direct illusions to Tree Paine, Swift’s enigmatic publicist, but anyone who saw Swift’s 2020 Netflix documentary will recognize the character as something of an homage.
A Footballing Family
One of the biggest selling points of dating Drew, according to Bowyn’s manager, is that he’s got “the best family.” It just so happens that the brood mimics the real-life Kelce family. Both Drew and his brother play football; in real life, Travis’s older brother Jason was a center who retired from the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of last season. In the film, Drew, a wide-receiver, and his quarterback brother Rob (Dennis Andres) play for the same team. Rob and his wife Nicole (played by TikTok’s Haley Kalil) have a Jason and Kylie Kelce-esque rapport and a young daughter who happens to be a massive Bowyn fan. (Jason and Kylie have three daughters of their own, some of whom have had adorable interactions with Travis on their New Heights podcast).
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When Bowyn and Drew begin dating, Rob’s knowledge of the singer is limited. “She’s had a bunch of boyfriends and wrote songs about them,” he says, to which his wife retorts, “That’s not sexist at all.” Drew seems to know far more about Bowyn. In addition to her awards and charitable efforts, he says there are “college courses dedicated to her career”—which is also true of Swift. Rob has no issue with his brother dating a superstar, so long as she doesn’t pull focus from the game—acting as the voice of the Brads and Chads who taken issue with Swift’s presence at her own boyfriend’s football games. Rob redeems himself later in the film, celebrating Bowyn’s ability to bring more fans to football and even boost his brother’s jersey sales—two things that happened re: Swift and Kelce shortly after they began dating last fall.
X Marks the Spot
As Bowyn and Drew’s romance heats up, they spend an evening drinking wine by a fireplace. After a convenient spill, Drew removes his shirt to reveal a six-pack. “Can I touch it?” she asks, after admitting to previously dating only “serious actors and indie rockers” with scrawnier physiques. “Strumming guitars and playing Hamlet don’t exactly create abs like that,” Bowyn says, a line that could target a number of Swift’s actual exes—from musicians like Matty Healy to an actor like Joe Alwyn, who is set to star in an upcoming film adaptation of Hamlet. (Another pointed line refers to Bowyn’s indie-rocker-turned-actor ex, who never walked the red carpet with her while they were dating.) Oh, and Drew’s response to the whole six-pack-grazing request? “You can do anything you want to it.” Netflix—you have some sexy holiday competition!
Don’t Forget the Lyrics
The tracks we hear from Bowyn, namely her new single, “Shine,” don’t evoke the award-winning lyricism of Swift’s actual songs. But that doesn’t stop the movie from borrowing a whole bunch of her lyrics as jokes and references within Christmas in the Spotlight. In fact, the film could act as a true test for those who consider themselves Swifties. Here are the Swift songs that are alluded to, according to my well-trained, chronically-online ears:
- “Teardrops on My Guitar”
- “Mean”
- “…Ready for It?”
- “But Daddy I Love Him”
- “Wonderland”
- “Peter”
- “Look What You Made Me Do”
- “Cassandra”
- “So Long, London”
- “Out of the Woods”
- “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus”
- “thanK you aIMee”
- “You’re Losing Me”
- A number of Reputation jokes, including Bowyn’s assertion that she would “rather be trapped in a pit of snakes” than hang out with her ex.
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The Backlash
A fateful run-in with Bowyn’s ex throws her relationship with Drew into turmoil after he releases an edited recording of the singer downplaying her new relationship and insinuating she’s only dating Drew for the publicity. Swift backlash to Bowyn’s words follow—but she is vindicated when the full, unedited audio is released. This plot twist will sound all too familiar for those who have been following Swift’s longtime issues with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. Back in 2016, West released a song called “Famous,” which includes these lyrics: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.” Kardashian, West’s then wife, posted a video of a phone call in which Swift allegedly gave permission for West to mention her name in the song. At the time, though, Swift was apparently not told the lyrics would include calling her a bitch.
Swift has spoken about the incident’s long-lasting impact, telling Time magazine last year, “You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”