Sei's Little Corner 🍀

This statement to TMZ almost certainly came from his team, and it was the right call. Acknowledge it, apologize, provide context, and move on. The key point is that this happened years ago. You don't want to elevate something that has very little traction outside of fandom spaces by turning it into a prolonged discussion.

Dropping the statement on a Sunday, right after the story broke, is exactly what I would expect. Nobody outside of people already deeply invested in fandom discourse is paying attention to this. In PR, we'd call this a soft scandal: a controversy largely driven by engagement, one that has a short news cycle and very little staying power once it's acknowledged and addressed.

Despite what some corners of the internet may think, Hudson is still relatively new to the industry. He simply doesn't have the kind of mainstream profile where something like this becomes a lasting issue. He's going to be fine.

The reason this was addressed, while other alleged "scandals" floating around online haven't been, is because this one is low-hanging fruit. There's an actual photo. It's also pretty easy to explain: a young kid in rural Canada doing something stupid years ago. The image wasn't drawn on his face by him, and there's a straightforward explanation available.

What experienced PR professionals are not going to do is dive into endless online rabbit holes about Instagram accounts, theories, or fandom conspiracies that exist almost entirely within niche spaces. Most professionals would look at this and say: dumb kids do dumb things, people grow up, apologize, and move on.

Honestly, the speed with which this was handled makes me think there may be a project announcement, casting news, or some other career development coming soon, so they wanted to get ahead of it and squash the story quickly.

My two cents as someone who does this for a living: this will likely be forgotten by Tuesday everywhere except within the fandom bubble—and fandom bubbles are often a poor reflection of real-world public opinion.

A gentle reminder that all of this could be easy. Simple. Tidy.

At any time, Hudson could have shut down the romantic speculation about him and Connor.

At any time, he could tell us that’s his bestie, he loves him like a brother, they have a nice bromance, or whatever other nonsense men that like each other platonically say.

No one is forcing him to flirt with that man in public. Online. In interviews. On camera. Off camera.

No one pressed him to talk about their relationship that bloomed into something lovely. No one pushes him to use romantic language when he answers questions. Every interviewer that asks about their connection gives him a platonic way out. Every time, they present the question in a friendship-shaped box and every time, he eagerly undoes the ribbon and says oh no, i love him. my soulmate, my baby. I need to hold my baby.

Mentioning him unprompted, drawing hearts on his pictures, dedicating special slides. No one told him to mention him several times yesterday. No one told him to dedicate his most prestigious award to him last weekend.

No one tells Hudson to touch that man intimately, to hold him closely, to caress his hands and kiss his face. To sit in his lap and share drinks and cigarettes.

This has never been part of the narrative. This is him, choosing to recenter his love for that man every time he gets enough room to breathe freely.

He’s making these choices, every day.

So respectfully, yes, we all have our opinions about the Situation. We all have different, valid interpretations. But one thing you will never do is convince me that he doesn’t wake up every single day loving that man, and making the active choice to share his love for him where all of us can see it.

He’s not even private about it. For as much as they share only with each other, he still carves out time to make sure that we know how much he thinks about him, and that his world and his universe would grind to a halt without Connor in it. It’s imperative to him that we all know he would kill any one of us for him.

And I didn’t even include shipping into this… this is just taking him at face value. 100% face value.

I see a lot of angry solos and antis and gossips chiming in these days to say mean-spirited things like, “he doesn’t love Connor.”

I have to ask…

When has he not loved Connor?

He’s always loved him. He’s loving him out loud. That’s not something anyone should be debating.

Why can't people seem to understand that it is still DEVASTATING to see Ilya heartbroken and hurting in this scene 👆🏻 when Shane walks away, even WHEN we understand Shane's state of mind and why he does what he does. That knowledge doesn't make Ilya's pain any less, because HE doesn't know.

In the same way this scene 👇🏻 is painful to Shane regardless of Ilya's reasons:

We know Ilya's very understandable reasons for pushing Shane away here, and even why he ghosts him after, but those reasons don't mean it hurts Shane less, which should make the audience sad.

I just see way too many people being dismissive of Ilya's pain at the end of the tuna melt scene because "Well, Shane is overwhelmed." or "Well, Shane doesn't understand what's happening." But those same people are often very judgmental about Ilya's actions in episode 2.