Wilson and her husband Tom Hanks’ Covid-19 diagnosis underlined how pervasive the disease could be. She talks about the grim side-effects of the drugs she took to combat it – and her rap-aided recovery
Precisely when political leaders of certain countries grasped how much of a threat
Coronavirus really would be is a debatable issue. But for many members of the public, a precise date can be put on when the truth properly struck home: 13 March. That was when Tom Hanks announced on
Instagram that he and his wife, the
Actor and
Singer Rita Wilson, a couple who are universally agreed to be Two of the Nicest Celebrities in the World, had tested positive for the virus in Australia, where Hanks had been
shooting Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic. (Hanks, truly cast against type, is playing the notorious bully, Colonel Tom Parker.) On
The Daily Show,
Trevor Noah said: “It’s almost like coronavirus chose Tom Hanks just to send a message to the rest of us. Like
prison rules: ‘If I can get Hanks, I can get to anyone.’”
Plenty of famous people have since been diagnosed with coronavirus, from Idris Elba to Placido Domingo, yet only Hanks and Wilson made newspaper front pages. And whereas other celebrity diagnoses have prompted debate about why certain people have access to tests while the masses don’t, the news about Hanks and Wilson, both 63, sparked only anxiety on their behalf. “How dare coronavirus hurt my father!” was the general online reaction, reflecting Hanks’s longstanding status as the United States’ parental figure. Hanks and Wilson occupy a near unique sweet spot of seeming both normal and gobstoppingly famous, making their diagnoses seem all too relatable and totally bizarre.