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The latest season of Ryan Murphy‘s American Horror Story kicked off by playfully mocking Taylor Swift‘s fans.
During the season 13 premiere on Thursday, September 24, Madelaine Petsch took on the role of a fictional Swiftie whose boyfriend, Ben (Joey Pollari), has triskaidekaphobia — a.k.a the fear of the number 13. (At this point, the whole world knows 13 is the singer’s lucky number.)
“Are you not a Taylor fan? You lied to me? You’re not a Swiftie?” Kira asked Ben in a scene from Thursday’s episode. “I have 13 of my best girl friends going on this trip and I told them, ‘[He’s] the greatest. You are going to meet him and fall in love with him.’ And what am I going to tell them now?”
Ben assured Kira that he “really” likes Swift — with Evermore being his favorite album. Elsewhere in the episode, Kira reunited with her other Swiftie friends, but their flight had issues and they ended up in a plane crash.
While he may have poked fun at Swift’s fan base, Murphy, 60, has previously spoken about his dream of working with the Grammy winner.
“I’ve talked to Taylor’s people about various things through the years, and all I will say is that I think she’s great and if she ever has time to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “I think she’s one of the greats.”
Murphy — who cast Swift’s now-husband, Travis Kelce, in his show Grotesquerie — recalled being “so shy” about bringing up Swift, 36, while on set.
“But he’s very sweet about it and respectful,” he added of the tight end. “They are a pop-culture phenomenon. It’s a very interesting dynamic, the way they’ve captured the imagination of the world.”
Kelce, 36, made his TV debut playing an orderly at a hospital in Murphy’s FX series.
“[It was] not necessarily that it wasn’t for me. I was part of a really good cast. I think I got a lot of help and a lot of pointers from them,” the athlete said on a July 2025 episode of the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast. “So they helped make me feel comfortable in the moment.”
Kelce admitted “preparation” was his biggest issue, adding, “I’m so prepared for an NFL game. I get an entire week to figure out a scheme of how I’m going to attack somebody and how I’m going to, like, handle certain specific situations. When you go into acting, I just don’t feel as prepared.”
While filming Murphy’s horror show, Kelce found himself struggling to adjust to life on set.
“I don’t know that professionalism before the cameras are on. I just hadn’t found that yet. I’m just going over the lines and I thought I could work something out,” he continued. “How many times am I going to read this same line and think that. You know what I mean? I gotta find the professional [in me].”
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