A rumoured kiss between movie star Timothee Chalamet and model Sarah Talabi has flipped the script on how the tabloid gossip mill usually works, and has the whole world talking about climate change.

Here’s the story of how one celebrity rendezvous at a music festival kicked off a conversation about global warming.

Who, what, when?
Chalamet starred in last year’s epic blockbuster Dune, which won six Oscars at this year’s event, and he was nominated in the best actor category for his leading role in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name. Sarah Talabi is a model, influencer and activist with 1.5 million followers on Instagram, who founded the social justice community Intersectionality for Feminists.

The two allegedly shared a kiss at the weekend’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, held in the Californian desert. Did it actually happen? Maybe. Talabi confirmed she was photographed next to Chalamet but refused to confirm the kiss, and she has used the mystery to redirect the news.

How do you redirect news about a kiss?
After being bombarded with questions from the media about her potential brush with Chalamet, Talabi sidestepped the question on people’s lips and turned it the conversation to… the polar ice caps.

“Everyone is asking me if I was kissing Timothee Chalamet at Coachella, and that is a good question,” she said in a statement to gossip outlet Page Six. “But a great question would be asking our world leaders why the Earth is now losing 1.2 trillion tonnes of ice each year due to global warming and why climate crisis reform has been completely ineffective.”

It’s one of the greatest deflections of all time. Talabi managed to neither confirm nor deny the rumour and shift the conversation to a more meaningful topic. She also encouraged readers to contact their local representatives and ask them the question she posed. It’s masterful PR.

Isn’t celebrity gossip bad for our brains?
Celebrity news often gets a bad rap but there’s no doubt it captures people’s attention. Talabi’s response shows how clever handling of a personal topic can help draw focus to a global issue.