The Idol starring The Weekend draws parallels from his ex Selena Gomez?

The HBO series The Idol, featuring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd, began airing in June. However, the show faced criticism for its explicit sexual content and was labeled as "torture porn" and "a rape fantasy." Recently, fans have started speculating that The Idol draws inspiration from The Weeknd's former partner and pop star Selena Gomez.

3 things you need to know

• The storyline of The Idol revolves around the world of the music industry.
• It features Lily-Rose Depp as the pop star Jocelyn, which fans believe is based on Selena Gomez. 
• The executive producer and actor of the show The Weeknd dated Selena in 2017 for 10 months. 

The Selena Gomez connection

Ever since The Idol debuted on television, fans have been noticing the uncanny similarities between Depp’s character Jocelyn and Selena. In the first episode, Jocelyn postponed her tour due to a "nervous breakdown" following the loss of her mother to cancer. It bore resemblance to Selena canceling her Revival tour due to anxiety and depression in 2016.

In a later episode of the show, Jocelyn makes an effort to regain her status by organising a photoshoot for the album cover of her upcoming record. During the shoot, she wears a hospital bracelet as a symbolic accessory. Fans stated that it drew parallel from Selena’s single Bad Liar cover of 2017. Additionally, Selena Gomez and Jocelyn both were child actors in a well-known comedy before starting their musical careers. 

Parallels between assistant/ best friend relationship

Additionally, Jocelyn and her assistant Leia are shown to have a very tight relationship similar to the one Selena Gomez and her assistant Theresa Mingus shared. Jocelyn even works on a cosmetics line with Leia in The Idol. Theresa and Selena worked together on her swimsuit line, La'Mariette. Interestingly enough, all of the referred incidents took place in 2017, which was the year The Weeknd was dating Selena. 

(Lily-Rose Depp as Jocelyn in The Idol | Image: HBO)  

Meanwhile, The Idol’s director Sam Levinson has made it a point to refute Jocelyn’s resemblance to any pop star. In a press conference at Cannes, he asserted that her character wasn’t related to any real-life music star. The weeknd said in the same conference that the show is inspired by his own experiences and the experiences of other artists that he has witnessed around him both male and female.