Lifetime’s Christmas in the Spotlight is inspired by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s romance — and the holiday film crafted the perfect alchemy of Easter eggs for fans to uncover.
Written by die-hard Swift fan Eirene Tran Donohue, the movie follows Bowyn Sykes (Jessica Lord) as the world’s biggest pop singer whose professional life thrives as her personal life struggles with terrible former flames and public scrutiny.
Drew Gonville (Laith Wallschleger) is an NFL wide receiver known for his lovable attitude, strong family values and past party-animal ways. When the two meet backstage at one of Bowyn’s concerts, sparks begin to fly (pun intended) — but the two will have to figure out how their love can endure the stress of the spotlight.
Does it maybe feel like you’ve seen this film before? Well, you have, but hopefully you’ll like the ending. Swift and Kelce came together in a similar way after the Kansas City Chiefs tight end declared on this “New Heights” podcast last spring that he attempted to meet Swift at her Eras Tour to pass on his phone number. His plan failed, but Swift was impressed, and the pair sparked a romance shortly after. Their love story quickly became a global sensation, and more than one year later, they’re still going strong.
Christmas in the Spotlight takes the Swift and Kelce lore and builds its own story about holiday romance. And while Bowyn and Drew are original characters, it’s impossible to ignore the parallels and references that are sprinkled throughout the film’s very DNA. Even Lord did some serious retcon about Swift before stepping into Bowyn’s shoes.
“I watched the Eras Tour, like, so many times to get into that pop star spirit,” Lord exclusively told Us Weekly in October 2024. “And I just have such a high level of respect for Taylor as an artist, as a person in the industry, the way that her dedication to her craft and her fans and her nonprofit work. Like, I can really see why we all are so passionate about her and her music.”
So, how similar is Bowyn and Drew’s romance to Swift and Kelce’s? Keep scrolling for all the similarities — and differences — from the pairs’ respective love stories.
Businesswoman Moves
Something Christmas in the Spotlight highlights from start to finish is Bowyn’s power as not just a musical artist, but a businesswoman. She directs her own music videos, writes her own music and calls her own shots along with her manager (who feels similar to Swift’s longtime publicist, Tree Paine). The movie also mentions Bowyn’s endless awards and accolades and her various philanthropic passions over the years, all of which closely reflect Swift’s own professional and charitable history.
Where Bowyn differs from Swift is in how the two women got their start: Bowyn was on a reality show when she caught her lucky break, while Swift worked her way up in the music industry the old-fashioned way. Both women, however, got their start as young teenagers.
On Her Own
Anyone who loves Swift knows she has an extremely close relationship with her mom, Andrea, dad, Scott, and brother, Austin. Bowyn, meanwhile, is an only child whose father passed away by the time the movie begins. She’s also estranged from her mother, who she says “pushed” her too hard in the industry and caused their relationship to fracture.
Both Bejeweled
When the film opens, Bowyn is filming a music video for a Christmas breakup bop. While the song doesn’t sound anything like Swift’s music, the visuals greatly resemble those from her “Bejeweled” music video. The “Lavender Haze”-like color scheme could also be taken right out of her Midnights era.
Lucky Number
Any fan of Swift’s knows her connection to the number 13. Christmas in the Spotlight honors the singer’s numerical favorite by making Drew No. 13 on the Bombers. Later in the movie, Bowyn is also seen wearing a letterman-style jacket to support him, meaning she, too, dons the No. 13.
Arrow(Head)
While Swift’s fans are known as Swifties, Bowyn’s fans are referred to as Arrowheads in the movie (Bow-yn arrow, like “bow and arrow.” Get it?).
Swift has a song titled “The Archer” off her 2019 album Lover, but moreso, Kelce’s team, the Chiefs, play at Arrowhead Stadium, which is where Swift made her first appearance at one of his games (and has many times since). Kelce is also known to do an arrow/archer pose after scoring a touchdown, which Swift recreates during her Eras Tour performance of “So High School.” (That’s a song dedicated to Kelce, by the way.)
All Star Player
Like Kelce, Drew is known as one of the best football players of his time. The difference? Kelce is a tight end for the Chiefs, while Drew is a wide receiver for the (fictional) Bombers. Drew also plays on the same team as his brother, Rob (Dennis Andres), who is the Bombers’ quarterback. While Kelce’s real-life brother, Jason, also was an NFL star before retiring earlier in 2024, he played for the Philadelphia Eagles — and was a center, not a QB.
Another — and possibly unintentional — overlap is that at the start of Christmas in the Spotlight, Drew is struggling with his game. Kelce, too, had a bit of a slow start (by his standards) for the 2024-2025 season.
Family Values
Drew’s family closely resembles the Kelces in the film, with Drew being close to his brother who is both married and has a daughter. In real life, Jason is married to wife Kylie, and the pair share three daughters with a fourth on the way.
Drew and Rob also have a close relationship with their Midwestern parents, just like the Kelce brothers do in real life, and their parents — like Donna and Ed — come to “all” the brothers’ games. (Donna was known to take flights across the country on Sundays before Jason’s retirement just to make an appearance at both of her sons’ games.)
Concert Meet Cute
In the film, Drew takes his niece to a Bowyn Sykes concert and when the pair meet backstage, sparks fly immediately. Fans of Swift and Kelce’s story know that while Kelce tried to meet her before one of her Eras Tour shows — so he could give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it — she turned the opportunity down. How they actually met remains mostly a mystery, besides Swift telling TIME in 2023 that she heard Kelce’s bracelet plan and thought it was “so metal.” She also shared that the pair began dating in June of that year. She made her first public appearance at one of his games three months later.
While the pair have already met in the movie, Drew does invite Bowyn to one of his Bombers games in the movie during a public interview, and Bowyn takes him up on the offer. The difference? Bowyn attends a Thanksgiving game to keep with the holiday theme of the movie, while Swift attended her first Chiefs game in September.
Hobbies
A small but significant nod to Swift’s lore, Bowyn is also a big fan of baking — and very talented at it.
Bad (Ex) Boyfriends
No one knows the details of Swift’s past relationships — but if going solely by her songs, she’s definitely had a few tough breakups. In Christmas in the Spotlight, Bowyn — who, like Swift, is slandered for her dating history by the public — is coming off a romance with self-absorbed actor Hudson (David Pinard). Her manager even notes that before Drew, Bowyn’s only dated “pretentious actors and indie rockers who have broken [her] heart for the last 15 years.”
Hudson feels like an amalgamation of Swift’s worst exes. And while his character is pretty generalized, the movie does mention him refusing to walk with her on “red carpets.” Before Kelce, Swift barely attended public events with her partners, most notably avoiding the spotlight during her six-year romance with ex Joe Alwyn. (“Front lines don’t you ignore me / I’m the best thing at this party,” is a lyric from her 2022 song “You’re Losing Me,” seemingly about the end of their romance.)
When Bowyn meets Drew, the pair definitely weigh their options about being honest with their relationship, but ultimately decide not to hide it. Swift and Kelce have done the same and have been seen supporting each other and attending events together on multiple occasions.
A Few Familiar Lyrics
Christmas in the Spotlight clearly makes an effort to work Swift’s lyrics and song titles into dialogue of the film. Songs like “All Too Well” make an appearance, but so do lines like, “Let the games begin,” a lyric from Swift’s “Ready for it?”
Another nod comes when Drew’s niece says he “can’t come to the phone right now, because he’s dead” — a line from the chorus of Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” off Reputation.
Bowyn also describes herself as “never the cheerleader type, more the bleacher girl,” which is a reference to Swift’s “You Belong With Me” from her Fearless album.
There are plenty more lyrical Easter eggs, but it’s more fun to discover them for yourself.
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