Why Do Celebs Go Sporting Event Official?

Another investigation...

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For a celebrity, there are many ways you can soft or hard launch a relationship.

On Instagram, the soft version may include an Instagram Story of the celeb on a hike, with their new boyfriend/girlfriend’s back facing the camera. No tag, but since they’re also famous, you know who it is.

A hard version may be a roundup of photos of their “favorite person” in seemingly relatable places, doing things that somewhat normal, non-famous people do. They’re out to lunch at All Time in Los Feliz. On vacation at Palm Heights. Acting “silly” in the chips aisle of a grocery store in one of the celebrity’s hometowns.

At an industry-friendly event where there are cameras, a soft launch may be posing in a group BFA photo at an art gallery opening for a friend. No couple shot, duh.

A hard launch with photographers is a red carpet step-and-repeat for one of the celeb’s new A24 movies that is premiering to critical acclaim and set to have a big promotional campaign. It may also include an Instagram post with the significant other, but unlikely.

On Thursday, Olivia Wilde was spotted at a Los Angeles Lakers game with her new boyfriend, actor and former professional basketball player Dane DiLiegro.

They’re not sitting courtside courtside. They’re a few rows back from the wood. Weirdly, can someone please tell me why Dane Cook is sitting in front of them???? Need someone who works in PR for the Lakers to explain this to me…

This got me thinking: Why do celebrities do this and what’s the range of “launching”
that’s happening at these events?

This launch with Wilde and DiLiegro feels medium. They knew they would be photographed, but I assume since they weren’t actually sitting courtside courtside, Wilde wasn’t shown on the jumbotron. It feels a little more secretive in such a public setting.

I picture that Wilde is saying something like, “Hello, world. Here’s my new boyfriend. We met on Raya. You can Google him, but I’m not going to say anything about this relationship on Instagram yet.”

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner also famously made their first public appearance together back in 2004 during Game 1 of the Cardinals-Red Sox World Series.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Taylor Swift making her first public appearance as Travis Kelce’s girlfriend at Arrowhead, seated next to his mom.

The ultimate Sporting Event Official.

There are also stars like Adele and superstar agent, Rich Paul, who had a medium launch by sitting courtside courtside during the 2021 NBA Finals after Paul soft-launched their relationship when he told The New Yorker that he was dating a “major pop star.”

They were newly dating. Adele is in full glam. And there wasn’t a photo of them looking at the camera anywhere—let alone courtside—like there has been in subsequent courtside appearances of the pair (here, here, and here).

Going Sporting Event Official isn’t exclusive to celebrities who are in a new relationship.