Naomi Osaka once told Ellen DeGeneres that Michael B. Jordan was her celebrity crush. Now the U.S. Open tennis champion has a personal invitation to the premiere of “Creed II” – and it’s all thanks to DeGeneres.
In honor of Osaka’s 21st birthday, DeGeneres tweeted a shirtless photo of Jordan to the tennis star earlier this week.
“I got you a present,” DeGeneres wrote.
Things moved quickly.
Osaka, who won the U.S. Open over Serena Williams in September, reacted to DeGeneres’ tweet with a relatable and bashful response on Twitter: “pls block me,” she wrote.
But DeGeneres’ plan to connect Osaka and Jordan later proved to be solid.
The “Creed II” actor responded to DeGeneres by tweeting a “more recent” photo of himself — still shirtless — sending Osaka happy birthday wishes. Not to mention he also invited the 21-year-old to the premiere of “Creed II,” set to hit theaters in November.
“This one is better and more recent,” Jordan wrote. “LOL Happy Belated Birthday Naomi. But seriously, I want to invite you to the Creed 2 premiere as a bday present.”
The Osaka-Jordan-DeGeneres movie premiere saga all began last month, when Osaka stopped by “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” following her victory at the U.S. Open. Osaka, who is of Haitian and Japanese descent, became the first Japanese-born tennis player to win a Grand Slam.
After Osaka revealed to DeGeneres that Jordan was her celebrity crush during a segment of the show, DeGeneres made it her mission to connect the pair.
“Do you want me to text him right now?” DeGeneres asked during the show last month. “Seriously, someone get my phone, I’m going to text Michael and I’m going to tell him that he should meet you.”
Later on in the interview, DeGeneres convinced Osaka to take a selfie to send to Jordan. Obviously, the “Black Panther” star got the message — he shared a video response hours later.
“Ellen hit me up and told me she was having you on the show, so I want to send my love and support and just say congratulations, it’s a big moment for you,” Jordan said in the video. “The way you carry yourself with such humility and grace, it’s really amazing to see ... ”
Jordan’s video could have been a sufficient enough response to DeGeneres’ interview with Osaka, but the host was determined to keep it going.
Osaka, seemingly a bit stunned by the success of DeGeneres’ efforts to link the two together, responded to Jordan’s premiere invitation on Thursday with a lot of gratitude.
“LOL what is going on???” she tweeted. “Thanks for the bday wishes, If you’re serious I would totally want to go.”
“You’re welcome, Naomi,” DeGeneres tweeted in response.