Why Selena Gomez named her new kidney after Fred Armisen

Why Selena Gomez named her new kidney after Fred Armisen

Selena Gomez will always last Fred Armissen close to her heart.

When the Murders Under Construction star had a kidney transplant in 2017, she knew she wanted to give her new organ a special name.

“I named it after Fred Armisen because I love Portlandia,” Selena said in a Nov. 3 interview with Rolling Stone. “I’ve never met him, but I secretly hope he finds out just because I want him to say, ‘That’s weird.’”

Armisen co-founded Portlandia — a sketch comedy show set in Portland, Oregon that poked fun at the city’s hipster reputation — with the actress Carrie Brownstein. The show aired on IFC for eight seasons from 2011 to 2018.

The show’s final seasons aired during a particularly difficult part of Gomez’s life.

Gomez, the subject of the new Apple TV+ documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me, was diagnosed with lupus in 2015, which led to a kidney transplant shortly after the release of her second solo album, Revival.

“I’m very aware that some of my fans noticed that I took a break for part of the summer and wondered why I wasn’t promoting my new music, which I was very proud of,” she said on Instagram in September 2017 . “So I found out I needed a kidney transplant for my lupus and I recovered.”