Taylor Swift: Not without my cat (stern+)

"Time" cover - Taylor Swift: Not without my cat

He hugs her neck like a stole: Benjamin Button, Taylor Swift's cat, has made it onto the cover of "Time" magazine. The cover was not for him, but for his owner, who was named the most influential person of the year. But the way the cat is resting on Swift's shoulders and ruffling his white fur in her mane of curls attracted everyone's attention. Benjamin Button stares from the cover with icy blue eyes - and almost stole the show from the US singer.

But what else would you expect from an animal whose owner seems to succeed at everything? "She was like the weather, she was everywhere," said"Time" editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs about Swift's choice. And indeed, you could hardly get past her recently. Even if you weren't interested in Swift, you suddenly knew all about her new love Travis Kelce, football star of the Kansas City Chiefs. You learned that her fans triggered a "Swift Quake" at a concert in Seattle, a magnitude 2.3 earthquake, and that she broke the billion-dollar mark with her "Eras" concert tour and, according to Bloomberg Economics, her US gigs alone increased the gross domestic product by 4.3 billion dollars. Record after record, that's Taylor Swift.

Swift as a cat mother

The fact that the US musician is a big cat fan and has three pets is well known among Swifties, the singer's fans. She lives with them and travels the world with them. During her tour, they flew with her on a private jet, each in their own personalized bag. "I love them, I'm obsessed with them," Swift likes to say in interviews. This was also evident at the "Time" photo shoot. When the magazine asked to photograph her as Person of the Year, she only had one condition, according to her Instagram profile: "Can I bring my cat?"

The photographer duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin were probably happy with the special request. There are many photos of Swift, but only a few with her pets. Her inspiration for the shoot? The illustrated book "Cat People" by photographer Bill Hayward from the 70s. The cover is adorned with a girl with curly hair and a cat flattened on her shoulders. Swift is said to have been immediately impressed. Together they copied the look. They put the singer in a black bodysuit by Alaïa and let her hair hang down curly and without the typical straight bangs. The cat, which was placed on her shoulders, looked less like an accessory and more like Swift's loyal friend. "It shows very well the relationship that people have with their cats," says van Lamsweerde.

Before Travis Kelce got together with the singer, Benjamin Button was the only man in the Swift household. But he has to share the pop star's attention with two other cats. Like the cat, they also have names that are reminiscent of famous movie characters. One cat is called Meredith Grey, a character from the doctor series "Grey's Anatomy". Another goes by the name Olivia Benson, an adaptation from "Law & Order". The latter is even considered the second richest cat in the world. At least that's according to an organization called the Ultimate Pet Rich List, which selects the world's most successful animals every year. As Olivia Benson has appeared in some of Swift's music videos and advertising campaigns, her market value is said to be 86 million euros. But now Benjamin Button is giving her a run for her money.

From pet to pop star: Lagerfeld led the way

Unsurprisingly, there is another famous kitty on the list: Choupette, Karl Lagerfeld's cat, occupies sixth place in the ranking. During his lifetime, the fashion designer, who died in 2019, showed how to turn a pet into a pop star. He was always accompanied by the Burmese cat and even had its name trademarked. From then on, everything was available with the animal's likeness, whether bags, shoes or necklaces. A concept that the enterprising Swift probably copied from Lagerfeld. She also had the names of her cats patented long ago.

Choupette lookalike: actor and musician Jared Leto in a cat costume at the Met Gala 2023

The high recognition value of the animals was demonstrated in May when the Met Gala was held in New York in honor of Karl Lagerfeld. Many stars appeared in the Choupette look: Jared Leto as a life-size cat with a removable head, rapper Doja Cat in a skin-tight suit complete with a fake face that made her look like a kitten.

Perhaps Lagerfeld's long-time model muse Claudia Schiffer came up with the idea of making the family cat Chip famous. After all, her husband Matthew Vaughn is a well-known film director. So it should come as no surprise that the cat not only has his own fashion book, but also plays a role in Vaughn's new spy thriller "Argylle". In it, the Scottish Fold cat accompanies lead actress Bryce Dallas Howard on an adventurous journey around the world.

Nepo-cats instead of Nepo-kids?

New book and film star: Chip, the family cat of Claudia Schiffer and her husband, director Matthew Vaughn, is making a career for himself

"On the first day of filming, we had an expensive movie cat - and it was a disaster," said Vaughn in an interview. Without further ado, he went home and borrowed Chip the cat, who actually belongs to his wife Claudia and daughter Clementine. The director himself had previously cared little for the companion, but then they shared a trailer for three months. "I fell in love with the animal and we've been very close ever since," says Vaughn.

Nepo-cats instead of Nepo-kids? It remains to be seen whether a new discussion about privileged animals will break out after the big outcry about celebrity children who get top jobs without much effort. The cats probably couldn't care less.