Anna Marie Tendler claims she was only kidding when she accused Taylor Swift of copying her art on the singer’s Eras Tour.
The artist, who was previously married to John Mulaney, sparked backlash with a recent TikTok video saying the stage setup during Swift’s song “Tolerate It” looked “strikingly like one of [her] photographs in tone and in aesthetics.”
In the now-deleted upload, Tendler showed the decorations, which featured a dining table and candles, followed by her own 2021 portrait for comparison.
“What the f–kkkkk?” she wrote of the similar table settings.
Tendler, 37, asked her followers for “help,” adding, “It doesn’t totally feel like parallel thinking to me.
“I’m a small artist, [an] independent artist who is trying to make money and live off of my artwork.”
After trolls criticized the allegation, Tendler called the footage “a joke or satire” in a comment.
“When I realized it wasn’t landing as a joke I deleted it,” she wrote. “Didn’t mean offense.”
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However, TikTok users expressed mixed feelings about Tendler’s explanation.
“Ahh the ‘it was a joke’ defense when the thing you meant seriously turned out to be horribly out of touch!” one wrote.
“she can’t seriously be accusing taylor swift of stealing her idea of setting a table … but sure piggyback off another artist to get your name out there,” another commented.
Tendler’s defenders, meanwhile, wrote that her video was “obviously a joke,” calling haters simply unable to “read [her] tone.”
Reps for Swift, who kicked off her tour Friday, did not respond to Page Six’s requests for comment on the 33-year-old Grammy winner’s stage design.
As for Tendler, she changed her TikTok account to private amid the backlash.
Page Six reported last month that Tendler is dating chef Nicholas Tran following her divorce from Mulaney.
The former couple were married fro 2014 to 2021. The “Saturday Night Live” alum, 40, has since moved on with Olivia Munn, with whom he welcomed a son named Malcolm.
