Taylor Swift ‘secretly jets 3,500 miles to film music video in Croydon shopping centre with famous pals’

Taylor Swift reportedly flew 3,500 miles in secret to film a music video in a shopping centre in Croydon. 

The global superstar, 35, was allegedly in the UK this week on a top secret mission to film the video with a host of her famous pals. 

Taylor flew by private jet from ‘from New Jersey to Hampshire’ last weekend and was reportedly joined for filming by the likes of Lewis Capaldi and Domhnall Gleeson.

But bizarrely, one of the locations for the shoot is said to have been partially-derelict Whitgift shopping centre in Croydon.

A source told The Sun: ‘This video was shrouded in secrecy, with Taylor’s security team working day and night to ensure she wasn’t sighted at any point. It was like a military operation.

‘But she IS the most powerful woman in pop, so if she wants to go unseen, she’ll make it happen.’

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Taylor for comment.  

The top-secret shoot was allegedly for her hit track, Elizabeth Taylor, with the pop star, specifically wanting to film in London in order to pay tribute to the titular star’s British roots.

The singer dedicated the second song on her most recent album to Elizabeth, dropping many references to the late screen icon in the lyrics.

And according to reports last week, Taylor planned to pay homage to Elizabeth by incorporating the city in which she was born, into the accompanying music video. 

The acting legend, known for her roles in Cleopatra, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, was born in Hampstead, North London in 1932, before moving to Los Angeles when she was seven-years-old.

A source told The Sun: ‘Taylor is super excited to be back in London filming for her new music video. Elizabeth Taylor is a British icon and Taylor wants to pay homage by shooting scenes in the capital.

‘Taylor has always written about her love for London, and the video will capture different locations around the city.’

The song, Elizabeth Taylor, is full of references to the famed actress including a nod to her famously ‘violet eyes’, and mention of ‘white diamonds’, in reference to her 1991 fragrance of the same name. 

Taylor also draws parallels between her own romantic history and Elizabeth’s own troubles in her love life, with the starlet famously having no fewer than eight marriages to seven different men. 

Taylor sings: ‘Been number one, but I never had two’ – referring to their shared success in the world of showbusiness (implying a number one hit), but without a ‘two’ – a partner to share it with. 

The track also includes the line ‘a view of Portofino’, the Italian seaside town that was one of the screen icon’s favourite getaways, and Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris, which frequently hosted Elizabeth and Richard as guests. 

Taylor’s also said ‘Portofino Orange’ is the colour of the Showgirl era, and also wore the bright shade frequently during the latter shows of the Eras tour, which wrapped last December. 

The Eras artist opened up about the meaning of the song in a recent Z100 radio interview.

She explained: ‘In this record, there’s a song called Elizabeth Taylor, which is sort of my emotions and my issues with fame through the lens of cosplaying the life of Elizabeth Taylor, so you kind of meld the two experiences together.’

Gushing over her admiration for the late legend, Taylor added: ‘She is always someone that I’ve looked up to as being this very glamorous, very beloved, but for some reason a polarizing figure — which, [I’ve] found myself in that place, too.’

As Swifties will know, her latest album is not the first time the Blank Space hitmaker has referenced Elizabeth.

Taylor previously gave a nod to her mid-century movie star aesthetic in the music video for Wildest Dreams.

And on her 2018 Reputation album, she directly referenced Elizabeth’s famously turbulent love affair with actor Richard Burton, with the lyric ‘Burton to my Taylor’ in song, Ready For It?.