Taylor Swift’s new song “Ruin the Friendship” isn’t about Blake Lively, as some fans first assumed. 

Instead, many believe it pays tribute to her late high school friend, Jeff Lang, whom she honored at his funeral in 2010. 

The track, from her latest album The Life of a Showgirl released Oct. 3, reflects on unrequited love and loss. 

“When I left school I lost track of you / Abigail called me with the bad news,” Swift, 35, sings. “It was not an invitation / But I flew home anyway … I whispered at the grave, ‘Should’ve kissed you anyway.’” 

Swift and Lang attended Hendersonville High School in Tennessee, where he was among the first to hear her early songs. 

After his passing at age 21, Swift performed at his funeral and later told the audience at the 2010 BMI Country Awards, “I used to play my songs for him first.” 

Lang’s mother, Susan, told The Tennessean that the two shared a rare friendship. 

“They hung out at her house a lot, always joking around,” she said, adding that she still keeps a photo of them together. 

Swift’s heartfelt track appears to immortalize the friend who inspired her long before fame arrived.

Scott Cooper, the director of the Bruce Springsteen biopic, just shared what the movie is about.

On Sunday, September 28, the 55-year-old American filmmaker and former actor attended the New York Film Festival premiere of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, where he chatted with PEOPLE magazine.

Cooper told the outlet that the forthcoming biopic, which stars Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, will “shed light” on the celebrated singer-songwriter and guitarist’s mental illness and the struggles he is facing.

He said, “This is probably his most painful chapter, most vulnerable chapter of his life.”

The director of Hostiles added, “He was just coming off of The River tour to great acclaim and success. Instead of chasing the roar of arenas and hit singles, he had the courage to look inward and face a lot of unresolved trauma that he had dealt with.”

Cooper went on to note that what came from this self-reflection “is — well, I think — his best album and one of the best albums of the last 50 years.”

He stated, “So to be able to tell that story and to shed light on Bruce’s mental illness, my hope is that folks who are struggling and don’t know how to get the help or the will to help will see that this is a very relatable story and will seek the help they need.”

The creator believes that seeing Springsteen “going into therapy will hopefully destigmatize” the negative notion attached to therapy, especially for men.

“We didn’t speak about it really because it isn’t a message movie about mental illness, but I think it’s a part of his creative process and when you see his creative process is about mining this unresolved trauma from his childhood that we all have in one form or another.”

“I think it’s a very relatable and powerful story, but it isn’t a message movie. There’s a lot of music in the film, but it just happens to be his record Nebraska and not Born in the USA,” Cooper remarked.

It is pertinent to mention that Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is scheduled to be released on October 24, 2025.

Audiences have been enjoying films at movie theaters for decades, but streaming and expensive ticket prices have impacted moviegoing habits. For the owners and operators of independent theaters, survival means getting creative. 

Kevin Smith, the man behind cult classics like “Clerks” and “Mallrats,” bought a theater in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, in 2022. It was the cinema he’d gone to growing up. He renamed it Smodcastle Cinemas, and hoped that even as it reeled from COVID-19 shutdowns, he could rekindle the magic he’d loved as a child. 

“I learned more about myself sitting in this (theater) than I ever did sitting in a classroom or sitting in church or something like that, and it led me to the rest of my life,” Smith said. 

But the reality of operating the movie theater was difficult, even for a celebrity like Smith. They operate as a non-profit, Smith said, because if they functioned as a for-profit business, they “would die.” Smith can bring in celebrity guests for Q&A sessions and other events. The theater also hosts an annual film festival. 

“Saving my childhood theater with my friends? Dream come true, worst financial investment I ever made in my life,” Smith said. 

On the opposite coast, film store Vidiots has been bringing new movies to audiences for 40 years. When it opened in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, in 1985, it operated as a traditional video store with an extensive and rare collection of films. In 2023, Vidiots moved to Eagle Rock and expanded into an exhibition space, reviving the historic Eagle Theater. 

“We opened to uncertainty,” said executive director Maggie MacKay. “We had no idea if people would come, and they did. And they’ve been coming ever since.” 

MacKay said Vidiots has become a touchstone for local kids. 

“One of the biggest surprises and the happiest surprises for us and the thing that I think I most wanted to happen here is that young people come here,” she said. “Teens, tweens are getting dropped off by their parents. And because this place is affordable and welcoming and nonjudgmental and safe, they are coming here all the time. We’ve got kids growing up here who call the video store their video store. We have a kid who calls it ‘my video store.’ That kid has no idea that that is a very unique thing to say in the 2020s.”

Like Smodcastle, Vidiots operates as a non-profit. That isn’t the only path to success for these kinds of theaters, though, as New York City’s Metrograph proves. The two-screen theater in Manhattan’s Lower East Side shows international and arthouse fare and operates as a for-profit. Business is booming, CEO Christian Grass said, with the theater recently enjoying its best summer on record.

“People love going to the movies and people love the experience,” Grass said. The theater also has a bookstore, a magazine, a streaming service, an extravagant concession stand and a swanky bar and restaurant. The establishment has focused on building a sense of community, said Metrograph director of programming Inge de Leeuw, which ensures people keep coming back. MacKay said she’s also found people are looking for connection, community and a place they can go. 

“Everybody wants movies in their lives, whether they know it or realize it or not,” MacKay said. “To save this thing, you have to make available every point of access for it. You have to make a return to a social experience.” 

While independent theaters are taking different paths to success, they have one thing in common: They want to keep introducing new and classic films to audiences. 

“You want to learn something about somebody, sit in the darkness and watch movies with them,” Smith said. “You will learn a lot about a person. You’ll find out if they’re empathetic. You’ll find out what makes them laugh. You’ll find out if there’s a real human being there, if there’s a heart underneath that all, man.”