No harm, no foul! While some weren’t impressed by Rihanna’s decision to text during the Broadway show Slave Play, the production’s playwright, Jeremy O. Harris, was far from offended. Instead, Harris issued a response in the multihyphenate’s defense.
“Two things I learned today about the Type of theatre maker I am,” his tweet began on Sunday, September 15. “When my idol texts that she’s running late. I hold the curtain for her. When my idol texts me during a play I’ve written, I respond.”
Harris’ message in defense of Rihanna accompanied a candid shot of the playwright doubling over in laughter with the 31-year-old Fenty Beauty mogul.
Despite Harris’ message in Rihanna’s defense, a Twitter user questioned his support of her texting. The individual said that they didn’t “understand why you aren’t condemning that behavior,” citing how Lin-Manuel Miranda previously slammed Madonna for texting during a Broadway production. “[Rihanna] doing that throughout the show is incredibly disrespectful to the rest of the audience. And also to the cast,” the fan added.
To this, Harris continued to stand by his choice to back the “Pon de Replay” singer. “I respect Lin’s position, I just don’t share it,” he wrote back on Sunday. “I’m not interested in policing anyone’s relationship to watching a play ESPECIALLY someone who isn’t a part of the regular theatregoing crowd. Moreover, as ppl on this site know I’m famously ambivalent abt phone use in theatre.”
Rihanna stopped by Harris’ Broadway show following a busy month leading up to her Savage Fenty line’s New York Fashion Week show, which was held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on September 10. Models Gigi and Bella Hadid, Joan Smalls and Cara Delevingne were among those who took center stage for the show. Halsey and Big Sean were some of the event’s star-studded performers.
On September 12, the “Umbrella” hitmaker hosted her fifth annual Diamond Ball in the Big Apple at Cipriani Wall Street. She recruited the likes of Seth Meyers, Pharrell Williams and Megan Thee Stallion to help make the charitable affair — which benefits The Clara Lionel Foundation — a success.
It’s no secret that Rihanna is a busy woman, but she recently opened up to Interview magazine about the importance of finding balance in her life by prioritizing self-care.
“It’s only the last couple years that I started to realize that you need to make time for yourself, because your mental health depends on it,” she told her Ocean’s 8 costar Sarah Paulson for Interview in June. “If you’re not happy, you’re not going to be happy even doing things that you love doing.”
See pictures of Rihanna attending Harris’ Slave Play on Saturday, September 14, below!