If you don’t love Ariana Grande‘s new music video for “the boy is mine,” you’re a dirty rat.
The video casts Ariana as a woman who’s got a massive crush on her city’s mayor, Max Starling, who’s played by Penn Badgley. She sees a news report that Starling is about to give a press conference about all the city’s problems, including that it’s overrun by rats. In fact, the first scene in the video shows rats attacking a sanitation worker.
In a clever bit of casting, the newswomen on TV are none other than Brandy and Monica, whose signature hit is, of course, “The Boy Is Mine.”
Ariana’s character has created a love potion to make Starling fall in love with her. She sews herself a sexy black Catwoman costume that hides the upper part of her face, grabs a whip and sneaks into his apartment. He tries to run when he sees her, but she catches him with her whip and pulls him back to her.
Just as she’s about to force the love potion down his throat, he unmasks her; they stare into each other’s eyes, and it’s clear that the potion is no longer needed.
And here’s an Easter egg: The credits reveal that the rats were voiced by Elizabeth Gillies. Gillies a longtime friend of Ari’s, having appeared with her in the Broadway show Thirteen and on the TV show Victorious. Oh, and in 2022, Gillies voiced the main character in the animated film Catwoman: Hunted.
(Video includes uncensored profanity.)
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