It’s Been a Wild Couple Days for Busy Philipps Fans

August is usually the doldrums when it comes to celebrity news, and rightly so. They’re off on yachts in the French Riviera or hunkered down in Lake Como or like, rural Montana, or wherever the rich and beautiful vacation these days. However, anyone paying even a bit of attention to the likes of DeuxMoi or TMZ or Pop Crave over the past two weeks knows that, instead of being pleasantly boring, it’s been a bleak and depressing period. Hayden Panettiere died far too young, at 36; the universally beloved Dolly Parton died at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer; Tim Curry, an ecstatically beautiful weirdo, also died at age 80; and Busy Philipps shared, in an in-depth interview with People published yesterday, that she had a rare brain tumor removed earlier this year. 

Then, within hours of the People story going up, Page Six popped up with some totally different (positive!) Busy Philipps news: She was spotted holding hands with her apparent new boyfriend, Jason Selvig, walking around New York City yesterday. Talk about Busy whiplash!

Selvig is a very tall comedian whom Page Six described as a “street interviewer,” which is a sassy (but not wrong) way of putting the type of satirical comedy/content he produces—aka making Trump voters look stupid on camera—which, Page Six notes, “Philipps has been steadily ‘liking’ since February.” However—and no offense to Busy—but she is not a typical Page Six target. Maybe since it’s an otherwise slow celebrity news week, they sent their photographers out to see if they could track her down? Is there some secret celebrity gossip editors’ group text where they let each other know when a big story’s coming and they should prep their paps? (Who am I kidding, of course that exists.)

In any case, Busy looked happy and healthy and like she was having a lovely afternoon drinking matcha. She’s recovered, and told People that she’ll be getting brain scans every three months for the next two years, and if the tumor comes back, there’s an oral medication on the market that can stop or slow its growth. As she put it, her current prognosis is basically “the best case scenario of the worst case scenario.” (Philipps said she’s felt “divinely protected” by the two friends she’s recently lost to cancer, including her Dawson’s Creek co-star, James Van Der Beek, who died in February, the day before she got the scan that led to the discovery of her tumor.) 

More best-case scenario developments for Philipps include her upcoming role in Michelle and Robert King’s latest CBS series, Cupertino, playing a character EW described as “a ‘Kim Kardashian-esque lawyer,’ who was married to the third-richest man in America, until he traded her in for a younger model when she turned 40.” I mean, I’m in. Also damn, impressive—because she started filming this five weeks after having literal brain surgery. (In case you’re wondering, that picture above? Less than a month after brain surgery. Get it, Busy!)

• After dancing on TikTok for 12 days, Zara Larsson’s Bangkok show sold out. [Pop Base]
• I guess Harry Styles got to soundcheck too late to figure out an actual Dolly Parton homage. [People]
• Relatedly, Vin Diesel’s tribute is really something. [Instagram]
• Leah Remini is joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. [TMZ]
• And Kylie Jenner has an “obsession with big tits.” [Page Six]

Keep scrolling for more great stories.