This pandemic has had the uncanny ability to show people’s true colors, from presidents to pop stars. Take this weekend as a prime example — not just for that main story, but for Lana Del Rey greeting fans at a surprise book-signing while wearing a mesh mask. The singer-songwriter took to the Barnes & Noble at the Grove in Los Angeles to promote her poetry book Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, which came out last week. Del Rey posted photos and videos of herself wearing the mask — which, as if us non-scientists at Vulture need to point out, is ineffective against COVID-19 in nearly every way — on Instagram, where fans promptly criticized her. “YOU MAKE IT SO HARD TO STAN PLEASEE WEAR A PROPER MASK,†@jake_troiano wrote. “MISS GIRL NOT THE MASK YOU ARE SO HARD TO STAN,†@apricotttz added.
The mask recalled the one she wore on the cover of Interview, where she claimed she was “an underdog†and gave updates on her as-yet-unreleased album Chemtrails Over the Country Club. Del Rey’s sister, Caroline “Chuck†Grant, told fans that Del Rey “tested negative†and stayed “more than six feet away,†despite the fact that she posed for photos for fans — and, you know, breathed on and touched all those books. Del Rey later posted another video to Instagram of her reading the poem “Never to Heaven†while wearing a cloth mask. Sure, hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like her to have, but not as much as the novel coronavirus.