Considering Ariana Grande has been a famous Hollywood actor and pop star for over a decade, you may have a hard time considering her a “rising star.” If so, you’re not alone.
Grande’s close friend and comedic muse Jennifer Coolidge expressed her own disbelief while presenting the 31-year-old actor with Palm Springs International Film Festival’s rising star award on December 3. “I don’t want to argue with the Palm Springs power gays or their little 19-year-old handsome dates but I just thought rising star? Hasn’t Ariana Grande already risen?” Coolidge asked, per The Hollywood Reporter.
She continued, “I mean, the girl’s barely 30 and it feels like she’s been famous since the Eisenhower administration. I do have a theory about Ariana: She’s actually a very old person and she just has really good skin. She could be like 90 years old, who knows?”
Speaking of “really good skin,” Grande thanked “Botox and Juvederm” for her latest honor.
“I’ve been performing since I was a child, so I never thought at the age of 31 I’d be hearing the words ‘Rising Star’ again, so I want to start by thanking my good friends Botox and Juvederm,” she joked, per THR. “I thought I’d be hearing ‘Slightly Withering Star’ or ‘Drooping Star’ by now, so thank you.”
This comes three months after Grande opened up about her use of Botox and fillers during Vanity Fair’s famous lie-detector test in October 2024. “I’ve had fillers in various places and Botox, but I stopped like four years ago…and that is the extent,” she said after denying various cosmetic procedures, from a nose job to chin implants to a “fox eye lift.”
“But also [I am] in full support of all people who do these things,” she added. Work! Whatever makes women, men, non gender-confirming people feel beautiful, should be allowed. Why do we care?” Amen.
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“Whatever makes women, men, non gender-confirming people feel beautiful, should be allowed. Why do we care?”
In her speech, Grande said “comedy is just another way of telling the truth,” a skill her character Glinda has helped her hone—though Grande’s comedic chops have been evident for years.
“Though Glinda the good is full of frivolous humor and witty punchlines, comedy is just another way of telling the truth,” Grande said. “She has an innate ability to make light out of darkness, even when there is pain, and I’m so grateful to have lived in that, to have learned so much from her over these past three years.”
Earlier in the evening, Grande told The Hollywood Reporter that she is “holding space” for “gratitude” in 2025, and her speech proved she was thankful for more than just cosmetic injectables and a beloved fictional character.
She reportedly gave a shoutout to her co-star and “sister witch” Cynthia Erivo, as well as director John M. Chu. Though she did not verbally thank her controversial boyfriend Ethan Slater—whom she met on the set of Wicked while they were both married to other individuals—the Boq actor was in the audience and posed for a photo with her brother Frankie Grande.
Ariana Grande also thanked Coolidge for sharing this moment with her. “Thank you Jennifer for doing this for me, for show up, for coming all this way,” she said. “I can’t tell you what it means to me. Your comedic genius, your brilliance, has inspired me my entire life. I just love you.”
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It wasn’t actually a competition, but viewers still say she beat Chloe Fineman.
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