Cuddlegate - Coldplay Brings a Whole New Approach to HR Sensitivity Training

Well, I'm certainly not the only one to have come upon the latest Cuddlegate.  By way of brief background, during a Coldplay concert, Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot of Astronomer allegedly (I'm using the word out of an excess of caution) were caught on a kiss-cam looking, shall we say, very comfortable with each other.  That is, at least, until they were caught on the kiss-cam.  

Some thoughts:

- Because the stars of this story reacted with such terror when they went up on the Dumbotron (as it's been called under the circumstances), Chris Martin surmised in realtime during the concert that the two canoodlers were having an affair or were very shy.  Bingo (maybe without the need for the latter possibility).

- Apparently the new word that’s about to be a part of the English language (which is a phenomenon that’s long fascinated me) is: getting Coldplayed.  I’d also throw out a pitch for "being Martinized".

- One comment I saw posted wondered aloud whether Astronomer's sensitivity training was given to any extent by Cabot, who apparently is (was?) the Astronomer HR chief.  That possibility strikes me as utterly hilarious.  Had she <ahem> boned up on the Company's relationship policies?  To say that the situation drips with irony is quite the understatement.  Attributed to Mark Twain - the only difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to be credible. 

- I liked the repeating of an old saw by Grace Springer, who shot the video that exploded into the zeitgeist: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. 

- Dare I suggest that Andy and Kristin are about to explore some conscious uncoupling?

- In this topsy-turvy world, I wonder what kind of severance packages these characters are going to get.

- An amusing sideshow was that an account of Peter Enis on X (spend some time focusing on the name) posted a horrifically tone-deaf statement purportedly from Byron bemoaning the invasion of his privacy.  Part of the reason, I'd suggest, that the post appeared to so many to be real is that arguably one really could imagine that Byron wrote it.

Oops.