Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost threw a pandemic-era wedding without offending anybody
Johansson and Jost have been engaged since 2019. Image by Getty
By Irene Katz Connelly October 30, 2020
“Black Widow” star Scarlett Johannson and “SNL” pundit Colin Jost got married over the weekend, providing a definitive answer to the question people have been asking since they started dating: “Really? That guy?”
Though the wedding took place last weekend, the couple broke the news on Thursday as part of a fundraiser for Meals on Wheels, asking fans to support the charity, which provides free meals to homebound seniors. A carefully-worded Instagram post stated that Jost and Johansson got hitched in “an intimate ceremony with their immediate family and loved ones, following COVID-19 safety precautions as directed by the CDC.”
It was a nice gesture — and also a very smart move, considering the flak celebrities have taken in recent months for flouting safety guidelines and seeming inappropriately unbothered by the whole global pandemic thing. The couple didn’t even share photos of the event: Instead, Meals on Wheels accompanied its post with a photo of the Staten Island Ferry, which (we believe and very firmly hope) is a nod to Jost’s origins rather than the actual site of the wedding. They’ve likely spared themselves the meme festival that ensued when Kim Kardashian tweeted about “humbly” celebrating her 40th birthday on a private island, accompanied by her full entourage.
Johansson and Jost don’t exactly seem like a natural match. One is the highest-paid actress in the world. The other is a man who describes himself as having “a very punchable face” (on the cover of his own memoir, no less) and seems to derive much of his personality from being born on Staten Island. Jost placed 11th in the Forward’s definitive (pre-engagement) ranking of Johansson’s lovers, which deemed him “the most ordinary-seeming man in the world.”
But there were some auspicious signs for the marriage ahead. In the past, Johansson has never lost an opportunity to make a tone-deaf gaffe, hawk a problematic product, or accept a role she probably shouldn’t. So it’s notable that she managed to get through this minefield of an event without doing anything for which she’ll have to issue an Instagram apology in a week.
Color us impressed, and extend our mazels to the happy couple.
Irene Katz Connelly is an editorial fellow at the Forward. You can contact her at connelly@forward.com. Follow her on Twitter at @katz_conn.
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