One of the side effects of Adam Rippon’s career transition from Olympic figure skater to TV host/author/celebrity gadabout is that when the paparazzi seeks him out to film a clickbait video, he often has to say “Yes” regardless of how bizarre the premise is.
Such was the case this weekend when the 2018 Bronze Medalist took part in Us Weekly’s Plead the Fifth, a two-and-a-half minute video featuring a series of rapid-fire personal questions. Rippon agreed to play along in order to plug his forthcoming memoir “Beautiful on the Outside.”
As part of this game, Rippon had to draw a series of seemingly random questions from a fishbowl and answer them truthfully — a situation that also had the unintended side effect of making said fishbowl the closest thing to a real journalist employed by Us Weekly. And the first question Rippon had to answer was:
“Have you ever thought about making out with Gus Kenworthy?”
This was apparently part of a series of hard-hitting interrogations including…
Are you conscious?
Do you have a pulse?
Are your eyes currently functioning?
For the record, Rippon’s answer was, “I think maybe once. Like a long time ago when I found out who he was. And not since. But I do love him.” In just a few words, Rippon managed to simultaneously give Us Weekly the headline it wanted and avoid making things awkward with one of his closest friends in the Olympic delegation.
Of course, Rippon could have also just launched into his best Alyson Hannigan impression and replied, “This one time…at the GLAAD Awards…”
Later on in the interview, Rippon paid several compliments to Johnny Weir and revealed that the last text he sent boyfriend Jussi-Pekka Kajaala was, “I miss you a lot today.”
It appears that when Rippon boldly proclaimed, “I’m America’s sweetheart,” it’s a title he wanted to hold indefinitely.
To sum up the clip, Us Weekly thought they could trip up an athlete who once gave the Mutombo finger wag to the Olympic judges. But suffice it to say, despite a difficulty level of 3.5, and Rippon pulled off another near-perfect landing.
