Ariana Grande’s Reunion With Ex Ricky Alvarez Has Fans Asking Questions

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I see you.

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Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney Plus.

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It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet.

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Go, go, go, go! A true epic and completely jaw-dropping.

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This is the only pure thing in this world.

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Return to Pandora on Disney Plus. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home.

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This is sick!

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Avatar Fire and Ash, now streaming on Disney Plus. Rated PG-13.

**Eric Wilson** (0:37)
Hello and welcome to The TMZ Podcast afternoon edition. The squad is back, Eric Wilson, Talia Block, Saran Sound. We're here to give you the Friday wrap up, the last TMZ podcast of the week. We're here to close out your week. It's been an exhausting week here in the TMZ office, if you can't tell.

**Talia Block** (0:58)
I have so much concealer on my under eye bags, really coming out.

**Eric Wilson** (1:03)
I'm on three hours of sleep.

**Talia Block** (1:05)
You look great.

**Eric Wilson** (1:06)
Oh, thank you so much. I pride myself in getting asleep. Saturdays, we're sleeping. For the boys, for the bed.
That's where I'll be.

**Talia Block** (1:14)
I love that. Can we get that on a big flag?

**Eric Wilson** (1:16)
What?

**Talia Block** (1:17)
Like one of those big flags above your dorms.

**Eric Wilson** (1:19)
Saturdays for the bed.

**Talia Block** (1:19)
Saturdays for the beds.

**Eric Wilson** (1:21)
That's where I'll be. But we have some Nancy Guthrie updates we did this morning and they're on the site. You can check those out.

**Talia Block** (1:29)
Upsetting.

**Eric Wilson** (1:30)
But we're here to talk about some later stuff.

**Talia Block** (1:33)
Let's have fun.

**Eric Wilson** (1:34)
Let's end this on a good Friday.

**Talia Block** (1:36)
Pour yourself a drink. What is it? It's 2.17.

**Eric Wilson** (1:38)
Yeah, we're going to talk about some couples. First, we're going to talk about Ariana Grande and potentially a new couple. And then we're going to talk about Benny, Bunny.
Bunny XO, potentially a new couple. And then we're going to talk about a grizzly bear, potentially a new couple.

**Talia Block** (1:55)
And a woman and a dog. That's kind of a throuple.

**Eric Wilson** (1:57)
Ooh, a throuple.

**Talia Block** (1:58)
Stay tuned for the throuple news.

**Eric Wilson** (2:00)
But let's start off with Ariana Grande. She is apparently bouncing back from Ethan Slater pretty quickly, huh?

**Talia Block** (2:07)
Oh, yeah, yeah. With her ex.

**Eric Wilson** (2:10)
With her ex, Ricky Alvarez. Sure. Let's go with that. Ricky Alvarez, who was her backup dancer. You may know from the very famous TMZ video where she licked that donut.

**Talia Block** (2:23)
That was in our video.

**Eric Wilson** (2:24)
What did she do?

**Talia Block** (2:26)
Well, she licks the donut and gets in, like, mega trouble. And then everyone was like, Ariana Grande is the most disrespectful woman on earth.

**Eric Wilson** (2:32)
She said, she said, I hate America, right?

**Talia Block** (2:34)
Honestly, whatever.

**Eric Wilson** (2:35)
Because it was such a gluttonous type of donut. Anyway, he was there for that. They dated for a while. Also in the song, Thank You Next, wrote some songs about Ricky.

**Talia Block** (2:46)
Now I'm listening to this.

**Eric Wilson** (2:49)
Those lyrics were recently changed on this tour that she was on. Yeah, she in the middle of the tour, which should have been our first clue as to them getting cozy again, she said, wrote some songs about Ricky. Now they still kind of slap.

**Talia Block** (3:03)
Uh-oh, they are making out on that tour bus.

**Eric Wilson** (3:07)
Here's what happened. Ari is obviously on tour, the Eternal Sunshine Tour, and they were in Austin, and apparently celebrating her birthday, which is today, happy birthday.

**Talia Block** (3:16)
Happy birthday, Ari.

**Eric Wilson** (3:18)
She's 33 years old, and Ricky was there. We got some photos that we can't show here, but they are on the website, tmz.com.

**Talia Block** (3:25)
Check them out.

**Eric Wilson** (3:25)
You can check out those photos, but apparently they got together for a little dinner, and our sources are telling us, specifically, it's not in here, but they're telling us, oh, yes, they are simply friends. People online are obviously speculating that they're getting back together, that they're a couple, but according to our sources, and we have some good sources, sometimes our sources lie to us, sometimes we don't find out until later.
But right now, our sources are saying, fully platonic, just celebrating the birthday, but these photos, she looks pretty happy.