throwing shade

That Time Barbara Walters ‘Shaded’ Katy Perry

Photo: Billboard

A serene Katy Perry appears on the cover of this month’s Billboard Magazine, chatting about her old loves (The line “You sent a text / It’s like the wind changed your mind” from “Ghost” references how Brand delivered the news he wanted a divorce), her new loves (“I always tell him, ‘Darling, you know I’m going to have to give your mind to science after you’ve passed, because we’re going to have to understand how all these sparks work’”), and how she’ll one day be Joni Mitchell, not Madonna (“As I inch towards my 30s, I think my fourth record will be more of an acoustic guitar album”). She also recounts a time that she was late for an interview with Barbara Walters and received some of the most amazing “shade” from the legend herself:

“I shouldn’t have done the interview: I was playing Madison Square Garden that same night, and I knew that the end of my marriage was coming. I was just exhausted and stressed,” Perry says. “I’d prepped everyone that I was running late, but Barbara showed up at the original time anyway. When I got there, I apologized immediately, but then she said to me, ‘You know, I’ve only ever waited for one other person this long, and you know who that person was? Judy Garland. You know how she turned out, right?’ I was like, ‘Oh, snap! Yes, bitch!’ I think it’s the coolest thing that Barbara Walters shaded me. I just couldn’t tell her as we were sitting down for a mega-interview, ‘Hey, my marriage is falling apart. Give me a break.’”

Poor Judy.

That Time Barbara Walters ‘Shaded’ Katy Perry