I’ve been impressed with the fact that Wicked: For Good’s promotion was significantly dialed down as compared to last year’s Wicked promo. It felt like that poor cast had to promote the first film for eight solid months. For the second film’s promotion, there’s been less travel and a more condensed timeline, but the trade-off is that it’s been nonstop shambles. Ariana Grande skipped the Brazilian premiere, much to the chagrin of Brazilians. Then Ariana was assaulted in Singapore and Cynthia Erivo was the one who saved her, not the bodyguards. Ahead of the New York premiere earlier this week, Cynthia lost her voice and couldn’t do any TV interviews. And now this: Ariana has tested positive for Covid.

Ariana Grande shared that she tested positive for COVID-19 as Wicked: For Good’s press tour comes to a close. Grande, 32, shared a photo from her Tuesday, Nov. 18 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to her Instagram Stories on Thursday, Nov. 20 and captioned the post, “moments before Covid.”

After Grande shared the post on Instagram, Variety reported that the actress and singer pulled out of her planned appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show this week and will miss Q&A panels for Wicked: For Good in the coming days. Her Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo will still appear on The Kelly Clarkson Show, as Variety reported.

Grande’s health announcement comes three days after she and Erivo, 38, skipped most press interviews at For Good’s N.Y.C. premiere on Monday, Nov. 17. Universal Pictures announced prior to the event that Erivo had lost her voice and was “not feeling well.” Both women posed for photos at the event’s red carpet, and they briefly spoke during a livestream hosted at the premiere. Grande explained during the interview that she was “not letting [Erivo] speak,” though Erivo did offer a short comment with a hoarse voice.

Grande’s COVID reveal comes at the end of a setback-filled press tour for For Good, the sequel to 2024’s Wicked. Grande was prevented from attending a premiere for the movie in São Paulo, Brazil on Nov. 4 “due to a safety issue” with her plane. At the movie’s Singapore premiere on Nov. 13, a man rushed at the Glinda actress and grabbed her while she walked the red carpet with her costars.

[From People]

Yikes. Poor Ari. People really forget that Covid is still around. Ari is not an anti-vaxxer either, she’s encouraged people to get the covid vaccine, and I certainly hope she’s all boostered up. Hopefully she’ll recover soon, and hopefully her Covid diagnosis will be an excuse for her to just get some rest and take it easy. Incidentally, I got my Covid booster later than usual – in recent years, I’ve gotten my Covid booster in September, alongside my flu shot. They didn’t have the covid boosters until October/November though. It hurt like hell this year, my arm was sore for a week!

Wicked: For Good is out this week, right now. This week was supposed to be the last big promotional blitz so that the film would open strong. What’s funny is that all of the box office prognosticators already have WFG with a huge opening – they’re predicting a $115 million domestic opening weekend, with $200 million worldwide. If that’s how it goes, that will prove that they probably didn’t need Ariana and Cynthia to hustle their asses off for months and work them until they lost their voices. If WFG opens strong, it also means the films are critic-proof, because I keep seeing terrible reviews!!

Photos courtesy of Ariana’s IG, Avalon Red, Cover Images.