Teyana Taylor appeared to boldly declare her relationship status with “Mufasa: The Lion King” actor Aaron Pierre in a photo snapped Sunday night at the Vanity Fair Oscars bash.
“Oscar night in black & white, no grey area,” the “Coming 2 America” actor wrote on Instagram, including three photos and seemingly indicating her couplehood with the British performer beyond a doubt.
Representatives for Pierre, 30, and Taylor, 34, didn’t respond immediately Tuesday to The Times’ requests for confirmation of the relationship, but the two were photographed together in snapshots taken inside the VF party.
In the first dramatic black-and-white photo Taylor posted, the singer-songwriter-actor-model poses with her hands on her hips in a plunging black halter gown while the 6-foot-3 Pierre, much taller than his lady despite her high heels, stands formally, hands in pants pockets, in a tux with a white bow tie.
The next shot sees them peeking at Pierre’s watch, while the third shows them back to back, with the “Genius: MLK/X” actor holding his jacket over one arm and looking a bit like James Bond as she bumps her booty against him and flashes her metallic stilettos. “A View to a Kill,” anyone?
“That’s how you pop out and show,” actor and comic B. Simone wrote in comments, while crip-walker Serena Williams added, “Oooooppp lol love this.” Taraji P. Henson, Lala Anthony and Keke Palmer also weighed in with positive reinforcement, with Palmer quipping, “Now I’m mad cause they ain’t sent me my pictures.”
“Girllaaaaaaa … das Mufasaaaaaaa,” wrote Adiz “Bambi” Benson of “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta,” echoing the chant from Pierre’s viral December stroll down the Spirit Tunnel backstage at Jennifer Hudson’s show.
“This is how you do a hard launch!,” Essence magazine wrote in its own post, which included two of the photos. “After weeks of rumors, Teyana Taylor and Aaron Pierre are making it Instagram official. My Shaylaaaaa!!! P.S. It should be illegal for two people this beautiful to be together!”
The new couple arrives on the scene more than a year after Taylor and former pro basketball player Iman Shumpert separated and later divorced. Before their split, Taylor won “The Masked Singer” as Firefly in 2022 after Shumpert in 2021 was the first NBA name to take home the “Dancing With the Stars” Mirror Ball trophy.
“The Underground Railroad” star Pierre voiced Mufasa in Barry Jenkins’ prequel “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which hit screens in December and earned a Razzie nomination for worst remake, rip-off or sequel. (“Joker: Folie a Deux,” the Joaquin Phoenix-Lady Gaga musical sequel to “Joker,” took the trophy.) Pierre will pop up soon in the Season 4 premiere episode of AppleTV+’s “The Morning Show,” starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston.
Taylor, meanwhile, is cast in Paul Thomas Anderson’s still untitled “event film,” which IMDb says is in postproduction and expected to premiere this year. Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Wood Harris, Benicio del Toro and Alana Haim are also in the cast. Along with its title, the movie’s plot is being kept “under wraps,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
