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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Ellie Muir

Sabrina Carpenter’s new music video sees boyfriend Barry Keoghan play a gun-slinging criminal

Island Records / Sabrina Carpenter

American singer Sabrina Carpenter has enlisted the help of her boyfriend, Irish actor Barry Keoghan, for the music video for her new single, “Please Please Please”.

The latest song from her recently-announced studio album Short n’ Sweet is complete with music video visuals that see Carpenter in a jail cell, before locking eyes with Keoghan down the hallway, who plays a fellow inmate.

Carpenter, 25, directly references Keoghan, 31, when she sings: “I heard that you’re an actor, so act like a stand-up guy / Whatever devil’s inside you, don’t let him out tonight.” She then begs: “Please, please, please / Don’t prove I’m right.”

The singer makes references to criminals from throughout film history, such as Bonnie and Clyde, when she poses as the adoring girlfriend to her trouble-making boyfriend. But when the pair are both released and embark on their romance, Carpenter pleads with Keoghan as he returns to his criminal ways and lands himself back in prison.

Towards the end of the video, Carpenter reluctantly joins Keoghan on a gunpoint bank robbery, and he gets arrested once more.

(Island Records / Sabrina Carpenter)

When Carpenter has to bail him out from prison the second time, she grows restless and takes matters into her own hands by handcuffing him to a chair and taping his mouth shut, before planting a kiss on him and abandoning him in an empty warehouse.

Carpenter was first romantically linked to Keoghan in December 2023, after they were spotted in Los Angeles during a time when the actor was making headlines for his role in Emerland Fennell’s film Saltburn.

The pair were rumoured to be dating for months, but didn’t confirm their romance until they appeared together at the Meta Gala.

The music video for “Please Please Please” was released just days after Carpenter was accused of copying a years-old photo shoot in a French magazine for the cover art for her forthcoming album.

(Island Records / Sabrina Carpenter)

The album cover for Short n’ Sweet shows Carpenter looking over her bare shoulder, which has been marked with a red lipstick kiss.

Social media users pointed out that Carpenter’s photo bears a close resemblance to a picture featuring French model Tiffany Collier, in which she is also looking over her bare shoulder with the same lipstick kiss stamp.

Collier had originally posted the image on Instagram in February 2018, writing: “Happy Valentine’s Day.” She had also tagged the photographer Bruno Juminer.

Sabrina Carpenter has been accused of copying an old magazine photoshoot (honeymoonavfade on X/ screenshot )

While the “Espresso” singer’s album announcement has excited her fans, others have criticised Carpenter for not giving credit to the photo original photo in question.

Carpenter’s forthcoming album, Short n’ Sweet, will be her sixth studio record. In April, the singer released the album’s lead single, “Espresso”, which has topped the UK music charts for five consecutive weeks, and has been dubbed by several cultural commentators as the song of the summer.

The new album comes two years after her last record, Emails I Can’t Send, which includes her other hits “Feather” and “Nonsense”.

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