Beyonce and Jay Z are no longer On the Run. Their short summer tour is over, and, coincidentally so are the rumors of divorce. Why? Because the stories were staged to sell tickets. Every media outlet went for it, though, even Time.com but especially the New York Post. Hilarious.
Billboard says the tour grossed $100 million, and sold through at a magnificent 90%. But they also concede that the tour didn’t sell so great up front. Both Beyonce and Jay Z had already toured individually just a few months earlier. Last minute sales were crucial to On the Run. And they were certainly affected by the rampant divorce and cheating stories.
The ball started rolling on July 19th– the mid point of the tour when the press starts paying less attention to them. This was when the Post asked “Could This Be the End of Beyonce and Jay Z?” Stories followed on the 25th, 26th, and 28th and then again on August 2nd. It didn’t matter that within each story sources were quoted saying the couple was happy. The headlines were about Beyonce allegedly looking for her own apartment (ridiculous), inside their crumbling marriage, and finally, on August 7th, news that the breaking up couple was “hiding” together, no less, at Gwyneth Paltrow’s LA home.
The fever pitch definitely came on August 2nd-3rd, the days the couple played the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. That was when eery tabloid jumped on the idea that they were in separate hotel rooms, contemplating an exit interview for TV and possibly cancelling the tour before it hit San Francisco. In other words: run, get your tickets now, because this may be the end. The couple had back to back dates in SF at the AT&T arena. Guess what? They soldiered on to nearly sold out shows!
Also, I’d like sell you a condo in Gaza.
There was never a question of a $100 million tour being cancelled. Are people this stupid? (Evidently tabloid writers and publicists stoking this nonsense thought so.) My favorite quote was this one, from the usual unidentified source (aka fictional person): “I’m definitely not sure that they’ll make it to Paris.”
Again, are you that gullible? HBO is filming the Paris shows for a special. Believe me, Beyonce and Jay Z will do those shows even if they’re bleeding from the head, so to speak. And watch the press– the rumors will go crazy again around that time, maybe the same time they announce a European tour. And this time they will be in different languages.
You may wonder: why would celebrities agree to use their personal lives like this? And the answer is always the same– money. Beyonce and Jay Z will get the last laugh over a bottle of Dom Perignon while we’re reading about it in the Post and having a Snapple.
