UPDATE: No need to call Veronica Mars, because this mystery has been solved.
We've gotten confirmation that the fall was indeed planned beforehand, leading us to believe that there was a body double in play.
"The fall was planned. We’ve been working for weeks to perfect the shoot," a representative from Target told The Huffington Post. "We wanted to offer fans who were tuning in something particularly memorable -- to make them do a double take and even laugh. We hope they enjoyed seeing Gwen transition from set to set. We know it’s a night we won’t soon forget!"
Case closed.
PREVIOUSLY: There's no doubt about it: Gwen Stefani's live music video for her new single "Make Me Like You" was one of the highlights of Monday's Grammys, but what about that fall?
In the first music video ever created on live television, Stefani -- with the help of Target -- turned a routine commercial break into a revolving, retro roller-skating bonanza, executing enough costume changes, choreography and visual stunts to make "Grease: Live" look like an embarrassing middle school musical.
And then, there was ... dun dun dun ... the fall.
In the closing moments of the video, Gwen and a group of dancers roller skated their way to Grammys glory until Stefani -- or was that a body double? -- went down hard, causing the entire to party to follow suit and stop that segment of the performance.
Moments after the fall, Stefani pops up again in a new costume, singing the final bars of the song as she's lifted up into the air.
If you look closely right before the fall, however, Stefani leaves the screen for a couple of seconds, which is unusual considering the context of the performance. And then, what appears to be a body double -- look at the wig and the difference in body type -- takes her spot, giving Gwen enough time to change costumes and get into place for the closing stunt.
Also, after "the fall," ('sup, @ArthurMiller) the purple-pants-wearing dancer on the right seems to purposefully go down without any reason other than to sell the gag to the audience. Considering that all of these dancers are probably professional roller skaters, it seems unlikely that they wouldn't try to recover better after a serious gaffe like this one.
Stefani also made no mention of the mishap in her official statement following the performance.
“Wow! That was the fastest four minutes," she said. "It’s so amazing how much goes into one take. I couldn’t be more proud of our team, especially Sophie [the director], the cast and the crew for their hard work over the past few weeks. This entire project with Target has been such an incredible experience, and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to collaborate with them.”
We're gonna call BS on the "fall," Stefani, but kudos for pulling off one of the few surprising moments of the night.
We reached out to Gwen Stefani's reps and will update the post accordingly.
Also on HuffPost:
Grammys Red Carpet 2016
