Donatella Versace Is Thirsting Over Heated Rivalry, Too
Let us all hope we find someone who loves us as much as Donatella Versace loves Heated Rivalry. After recently following leading men Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams on Instagram, the Italian designer just doubled down on her appreciation for television’s hottest show.
In a video shared to social media, Versace is asked by a man, “What are you watching?” “Is that even a question? Take me to the cottage already,” she says, as the camera pans to Storrie and Williams in bed shirtless. To finish the video, she answers the question “Who are you listening to today?” with “Two girls: Gaga and Dua.” An icon.
Though she’s from the south of Italy, Versace isn’t a total newbie to the world of hockey. She once remixed the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks’ logo for a Versace sweater. It goes without saying the NHL’s no stranger to ripped shirtless men, either.
For those of you yet to familiarize yourselves with Heated Rivalry, the cottage is in reference to the lakefront home that Ilya (Storrie) and Shane (Williams) meet up at during the first season’s finale. They’ve been hiding their relationship in hotel rooms and corridors, and the cabin becomes a private oasis for the hockey players to explore their love during the off-season. That oasis is (spoiler alert!) interrupted when Shane’s father barges in on them, causing the pair to admit that they’re a couple. The ending departs from the show’s source material, Rachel Reid’s 2019 book of the same name, in which the pair conjure up a plan to reveal their relationship over several years.
“This was what I was always building to,” creator Jacob Tierney said in a recent interview. “The thing that I became aware of at a certain point was that the contrast between how huge episode 5 feels and is, and how small and intimate episode 6 is, was a pretty big swing—but the swing had to be taken.”
The entirety of Heated Rivalry is now a cultural phenomenon, but “Take me to the cottage” has become a calling card for fans of the show. They might have to elbow past Versace and other celebrities like Jeff Goldblum when they arrive, however.
