Call Me a Sucker, but I’m Happy for Taylor and Travis

By now you’ve probably heard the news, or maybe just the joyful squeals emanating from TikTok or Swifties in your neighborhood: On Tuesday, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, the Kansas City Chiefs football star and the multiplatinum pop princess (or, as the happy couple refer to themselves, “your English teacher and your gym teacher”) announced their engagement.

The news was not an out-of-the-clear-blue-sky surprise. For one thing, the couple have been dating for two years. For another, the announcement was so carefully choreographed, with such a long and deliberate lead-up and such an obviously elaborate plan for maximum media saturation, that it might as well have been the P.R. plan for a summer tent-pole movie.