Happy seventh anniversary of Taylor Swift visiting the Kennedy Compound!

As far as celebrity footnotes go, it may have been a small one, but here it is being given brand-new prominence in the just-out biography, The Kennedy Heirs: John, Caroline and the New Generation, by serial Kennedy biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of three prior books about the dynasty (all among my personal favourites!). Zooming in on the third and fourth generations primarily — examining both the enduring legacy of public service, as well as all the invisible tripwires involved in being a Kennedy — this door-stopper of a book looks at the 29 cousins, and their children. And, well, TaySwift gives her due, too.

Ready to rewind to one of the great pop-culture moments of this decade (not to mention a master class in how to have a summer fling)?!

Then 22, the pop princess (just in time for the July 4 holiday) arrived in Hyannis Port, Mass. — where Jackie long ago relaxed with Jack, and Carolyn Bessette was introduced to the family by JFK Jr. — on a Sunday, and spent much of her few days ingraining herself: having meals with the family, and getting in on activities. She already had seven Grammys and millions of records sold; her romantic resumé already included names such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Joe Jonas.

“You know what she really is?” Ethel Kennedy — the widow of Bobby Kennedy, and effectively the battle-axe ruler of the clan by this point — later said of Swift, according to the book. “She’s game. She had never sailed before; she sailed. She had never dragged before (a boat activity). She dragged. She played everything that everyone else was doing and she was good at it, no fuss.”

For Ethel, who proudly keeps a needlepoint in her home that reads “If You Obey All The Rules, You Miss All The Fun,” there was probably no higher compliment than “game.”

But let us re-rewind a little! Swift, already a Kennedy aficionado — having watched many documentaries, and read many books on the family, including two written by Taraborrelli, he has said in interviews — had let it be known that Ethel was her fave because, she explained, “when you look at the pictures of her and Bobby they always look like they are having the most fun.” She had even wrote a song based on a photo she’d seen of them.

Having read that Swift was a fan, Rory Kennedy — Ethel and Bobby’s youngest daughter — reached out to ask for tickets for her two daughters. The request was granted — complete with a backstage meeting. Taking the opportunity to ask if she might have a chance to meet Ethel, Swift had Rory pass along her number. A lunch eventually ensued and, later, a red-carpet appearance by Swift to support the HBO documentary that Rory had done about her mother at the Sundance Film Festival. It was after that incident that Ethel — 83 at the time — invited her to come to her house for July 4 weekend. Swift eagerly accepted.

(Note to self: do more cross-generational lunches!)

A weekend to remember, then, in 2012: on the first night, the pop star spent her time hanging out with some of the younger Kennedys, and doing Cape Cod-y things: drinking, swimming, and playing flashlight tag (a favourite Kennedy pastime, basically tag in the dark).

The next day started with a huge breakfast, prepared by a chef, in the nook of Ethel’s enormous kitchen. The menu included Palm Beach crab stack with poached eggs — basically crab cake on English muffins with eggs, tomatoes, cheese, and hollandaise sauce. There, Kennedy youngsters mixed with some of the grown-ups as Ethel told them “Elbows off the table” — “something that had long been a pet peeve of hers and remains so,” says the book.

The conversation turned to who was taking which yacht out, where and when was the volleyball game, etc.

Lunch? It ensued on Ethel’s patio where Swift — in red shorts, black tee, and a polka-dotted scarp folder around her head — gave a private performance. An acoustic guitar rendition, actually, of the ditty she had written in honour of Ethel and Bobby. It was called “Starlight” — with lyrics such as “I met Bobby on the boardwalk, summer of ‘45/ Picked me up late one night at the window/ We were 17 and crazy, running wild.” Ethel was beyond moved.

Dinner, formal as ever, followed, starting with a first course of baked brie wrapped in phyllo with walnut, followed by barbecued Cajun shrimp as well as halibut.

After the holiday was done, everyone was taken with Swift, it was made clear. She was now pretty much an honorary Kennedy — completely with a budding romance with Ethel’s grandkid Conor Kennedy, son of Bobby Kennedy Jr.! Four years her junior and shaggy-haired, he was still grieving his mother, Mary Richardson, who, after a battle with mental illness, had killed herself some weeks prior (her ex-husband had discovered her hanging from a rope in a barn — just one of many tragedies touched on in The Kennedy Heirs). Swift saw something in his vulnerability.

When she asked him about some of the dark history of tragedy in his family, Conor simply came back with a single sentence: “Life’s messy.” Clearly, the observation of a kid who had already seen a lot, and had stopped trying to make sense of it.

It was the definition of a summer fling: one night, the burgeoning couple had dinner at a nearby pizza place; on another day, they went church together in Hyannis Port. By mid-August, she was so swept away that she actually decided to buy property on Cape Cod to be close to him. Swift spent $4.9 million (U.S.) on a seven-bedroom summer home overlooking Nantucket Sound, complete with own private beach.

Uh-oh. This, naturally, made Conor a little nervous — he liked her, but wasn’t this a bit much?

Then, more D-R-A-M-A: on Aug. 23, Taylor was forced to deny that she crashed the wedding of Conor’s cousin, Kyle Kennedy, after the mother-of-the-bride told the media that Swift and Conor were asked to leave not once but twice, only to refuse (the worry being that they were taking too much attention away from her daughter).

Naturally, Swift called to apologize directly to Ethel. The latter was a good sport about it, telling her not to worry. Things were patched over — but not so much with her and Conor. By September, the romance was dunzo. In a few months, she had also sold the house that she had purchased on a lark — minting a million-dollar profit, while at it. Shabby: not.

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The moment, if nothing else, emphasizes for me the cross-pollination that has long gone on between the worlds of showbiz and the Kennedys (and, indeed, the fairy dust of showbiz glamour that JFK and Jackie that clung to themselves way back when). Great-granddad Joe, who merged two studios to create RKO in 1928, romanced golden-age star Gloria Swanson for three years. JFK, infamously, had a fling with Marilyn Monroe, while his sister Patricia spent 12 rocky years married to Peter Lawford (a bona fide member of the Rat Pack). Third-generation staple Maria Shriver was married to Arnold Schwarzenegger for 25 years before they separated; their son Patrick Schwarzenegger memorably caroused with Miley Cyrus while his own acting career was getting underway.

Just last month, the bond was evident yet again when Katherine Schwarzenegger — the eldest daughter of Maria and Arnold — married A-lister Chris Pratt. Insta-Power Couple status.

As for Swift, she was all too equipped to — wait for it — shake it off. For a Kennedy aficionado such as herself, it had been a surreal summer entrée to a rarefied world, one which she confirmed later when she said: “It was one of the best times of my life.”

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