Reese Witherspoon fuelled a large-scale sleuthing mission last week after she detailed how a fellow A-list actress ‘doesn’t talk to her anymore’ following a speech she made at an awards ceremony in 2007, which turned into more of a ‘roast’. While she remained tight-lipped about their identity, armchair detectives quickly made up their minds that she was referring to Brit actress Kate Winslet.
Despite Reese denying the rumours on Instagram – insisting that the Titanic star, 49, is a ‘dear friend’ – we’re told that the latter is unhappy about being dragged into the online narrative. A source says, ‘Kate is pretty stunned by it all. Sure, Reese made a blunder with her speech back in the day, but Kate would not be the type to cut a friend off over that. The way she tells it is that she just got very busy with life, and wasn’t around or able to devote much time to the friendship. She certainly wasn’t carrying out some grudge.’
In a recent interview, Happy Sunshine entrepreneur Reese, 48, opened up about the speech, revealing that it ‘haunts’ her. She recalled, ‘I got up and I roasted her. But that was not the tone. The tone was British, elegant, classy, and ‘I was like, “Remember the time we got laser hair removal?”
‘I’m still embarrassed about it.’ She added, ‘We’re not friends anymore. I’m not even kidding. I think she doesn’t like me anymore. It was pretty bad.’
It wasn’t long before assumptions were made, with many noting that Reese presented Kate with the Artist Of The Year award during the 2007 BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards. During the speech, Reese – who is mum to Ava, 25, and Deacon, 21, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe – detailed how she’d ‘always wanted to be a European movie star, wear giant sunglasses, elaborate neck scarves, smoke hand-rolled cigarettes’ and so couldn’t believe her luck when Kate moved to the same neighbourhood and they bonded.
Reese added that other stories she could share about mum-of-three Kate were ‘too bawdy or drunken to tell,’ including the time they ‘contemplated laser hair removal’.
Our insider adds, ‘Kate doesn’t appreciate being in the news cycle unless it’s for her work. People around her think it was a mean girl move from Reese, as she had to have known people would try to figure out the “unnamed” star.’
