Taylor Swift — is there anything she can’t do? Not according to a legion of online Swiftie conspiracists who thought she was involved with the movie Argylle. According to The Washington Post, however, the mystery has now been solved.
To understand what all those Swifties were going on about, one must first understand Argylle‘s origin. Purportedly, the Matthew Vaughn film is based on a spy novel by an unknown author named Elly Conway, which hadn’t even been released when the story was optioned. After several delays, Conway’s supposed debut novel is set to come out Jan. 9, 2024. The movie version, meanwhile, was released on February 2, starring Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, and other A-listers.
For a debut novel to be picked up right away is suspicious enough. Furthermore, there’s very little evidence Conway exists besides a lonely Instagram page with no posts showing Conway’s face. Conway’s Penguin bio is also sparse, stating, “Elly Conway was born and raised in upstate New York. She wrote her first novel about Agent Argylle while working as a waitress in a late-night diner,” — is it just us, or do those sound like Taylor’s lyrics?
The Swift-Conway evidence
Even casual Swifties — if there is such a thing — are well aware the pop star loves a good puzzle and a big batch of Easter eggs to keep fans interested. So, according to some, Elly Conway doesn’t exist, and Argylle is Taylor Swift’s fiction debut written under a pen name — after all, only someone as powerful as Taylor could drop a book debut and a movie based on her book simultaneously. It’s well-publicized that Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman) adapted the screenplay.
Besides the fact that the suspected Conway subterfuge is in character, Taylor has dabbled in acting, and many think she’ll eventually transition to Hollywood and speculate she’ll one day write a book. Taylor’s also used pseudonyms in the past. But that’s not all: she’s been photographed in argyle-print sweaters — exhibit A: the argyle RED (Taylor’s version) sweater she sells on her site.
Meanwhile, the cat on the movie poster is a Scottish Fold, just like Taylor’s cat, Meredith, and she used a carry backpack like the one in the poster in the Miss Americana documentary. The movie’s tagline sounds like Taylor, too: “Once you know the secret, the cat’s out of the bag.” And perhaps the biggest clincher of all, Elly Conway’s first Instagram post was December 13, 2022, Taylor’s birthday — the plot thickens.
Is the book based on the movie, or the movie based on the book?
Despite all that, it’s possible Arygylle producers are telling the truth: that Elly Conway is a unicorn young novelist who wrote a book so good it got picked up by Hollywood before it was even released for a movie starring Bryce Dallas Howard — who, wait a minute, looks a little like a grown-up Sadie Sink from the All Too Well (10 Minute Version) short film — as unconfirmed as this is, the evidence keeps mounting!
It’s also plausible that there’s some other kind of meta-publicity going on: The script — which, in a further twist, apparently features a Conway-based character played by Howard, who wrote a spy novel — may have come first, and the Conway novel came second, as a movie tie-in.
Reportedly, Arygylle is Conway’s fourth book, so if the movie does well, there are plans for other film adaptations. In Sept. 2022, The Hollywood Reporter said the publication tried to contact the writer to find out more: They couldn’t get in touch with her — because, of course, they couldn’t.
Argylle Swiftie fan reaction
Now that Argylle has come out, has Taylor conquered Hollywood and book publishing in one fell swoop, as she has every other industry upon which she’s cast her gaze, or has it all been idle fan speculation, instead? We many never know for sure. Still, many Swifties are convinced. In a supposed Conway Instagram post seen above, with Bryce Dallas Howard pictured, one Swiftie noticed:
“The blue butterfly for Debut, and THE SIX HEARTS in the diamonds representing the six stolen albums?! TAYLOR 😭 you are THE mastermind!!!”
Meanwhile, another added, ” … [T]he bottom books argyle patterns reminds me of her blue dress Grammy’s earrings for some reason 🤔.”
And finally, “It’s been a long time coming! just pre-ordered, and so excited to read. Congrats on your new venture!❤️👩🏻🦰🐱🔎,” one comment said.
Has the Elly Conway mystery been solved?
But as The Washington Post explains, the Elly Conway mystery may have been solved, and unfortunately, Taylor was not involved in either the book or the movie. The clue came in the thank you credits of the novel. Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, was thanked for his “patient explanation of star charts,” the credit said. Intrepid WaPo reporter Sophia Nguyen tracked Massey down. The woman he worked with on those star charts was a writer named Tammy Cohen.
Cohen is a mystery and thriller author publishing under pen names, including Tamar Cohen and Rachel Rhys. Furthermore, Cohen told Massey she was writing a spy novel for Penguin Random House. Additional clues suggesting Argylle’s origins came from across the pond rather than upstate New York were several British spellings in an early draft, according to the book’s editor. Nobody has officially confirmed it’s Cohen’s book and that the Conway-related cloak and dagger was a cute bit of movie marketing, but for what it’s worth, we think Nguyen has built a pretty compelling case.