Penn Badgley goes from stalker to stalked in Ariana Grande‘s music video, “the boy is mine.”
The You star and producer portrays the mayor of a city similar to New York, as it fights to end its growing rat problem by rounding up the local street cats and releasing them all at once to take down the rodents. Grande plays a city resident, obsessed with Badgley’s Max, creating a love potion to make him fall for her.
About halfway through the six-minute video, Grande is seen making and then wearing a Catwoman costume as she makes her way through the city to Max’s apartment. She uses her cat claws to carve a round hole in his window that she uses to enter his place.
When he’s startled to see her on his bed, he tries to run for it, but she grabs him by the leg with her whip before attempting to force-feed him her love potion. Instead, he breaks the potion against the wall, removes her Catwoman mask and falls in love with her without the potion. The final moments see the two of them in an apartment with several cats, happily ever after.
“the boy is mine” is a single from Grande’s newest album, eternal sunshine, released in March. It samples Brandy and Monica‘s 1998 hit of the same name, with the music video featuring an appearance from both artists as news reporters discussing Mayor Stirling’s plan and campaign.
Brandy and Monica in Ariana Grande’s “the boy is mine” music video.
Courtesy of Republic Records
The singer previously teased Badgley’s appearance in the video, with a TikTok post on her official account of the Gossip Girl actor dancing to the chorus of “the boy is mine.”
Grande also briefly reunited with her Victorious co-star Elizabeth Gillies, who voices the rats at the beginning of the music video.
Halle Berry, who portrayed the iconic Catwoman in the 2004 movie named after the DC Comics character, approved of Grande’s all-black look in the video. The Oscar-winning actress commented on a music video clip shared by a Grande fan account on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “Get it, Ari! Living.”
