Supermodel Bella Hadid and actress Taraji P. Henson joined the growing chorus of online criticism of celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Beyoncé, Venus Williams and Zoe Kravitz, who were expected to attend and support the Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos-sponsored Met Gala Monday night.
Hadid, who has attended the gala five times, liked a video by internet personality Meredith Lynch who issued a video “warning” on Instagram to celebrities going to the annual gala, the Daily Mail reported.
The gala, which was underway Monday afternoon, is organized by Vogue magazine and has long been considered to be the ritziest and most star-studded display of extravagant, cutting-edge fashion in the social calendar. Early photos from the gala showed Kidman, standing alongside Sánchez Bezos and Vogue boss Anna Wintour. Kidman also posed on the red carpet with her 17-year-old model daughter, Sunday Rose Urban.
In reply to Lynch’s video, Henson said she was “confused about some ppl that are going,” and proclaimed, “WTF?” The “Empire” star also has attended the Met Gala multiple times, the Daily Mail said.
Meanwhile, Meryl Streep and Zendaya reportedly declined to attend the gala because of the involvement of the Bezoses, who have publicly aligned themselves with Donald Trump. Streep’s reported snub of Wintour’s Met Gala invitation was seen as a particular rebuke of the event because she stars in “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” the blockbuster new film that depicts the world of high fashion through a fictional, Vogue-like magazine run by an editor seems to share Wintour’s reportedly icy, demanding persona. Streep and Wintour also appeared together on Vogue’s latest cover to promote the film.
Lynch’s video addressed the apparent plans of some celebrity attendees to try and show they have a social conscience by wearing “ICE OUT” pins on their gowns or tuxedoes.
“If you are a celebrity and you attend the Met Gala and you wear the ‘ICE out’ pin, please note that I will be dragging you in perpetuity,” Lynch said in the video. She also said: “You cannot wear the ‘ICE out’ pin to the Jeff Bezos-backed Met Gala. Jeff Bezos is part of the reason we’re in this mess.”
Her comment apparently referred to the Trump administration deploying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to cities to round up people for mass deportations, the Daily Mail said. Amazon Web Services is a prime driver of ICE’s incarceration and deportation program by providing the agency with cloud storage services that allow it to store, sort and share information used to target immigrants, according to the Immigration Defense Project.
While Lynch herself didn’t name-check any expected A-list guests, she advised publicists to reconsider allowing their famous clients to attend. She also said, “It is wild to me that this event is sponsored by Jeff Bezos, who has backed Trump who has slashed arts funding.”
Meanwhile, some who responded Lynch’s post, called out Kidman and Beyoncé in particular. They are co-chairs of the event along with Venus Williams and Anna Wintour.
“Nicole Kidman is starting to seem more MAGA than her Trump performing ex, Keith Urban,” one person said, referring to Kidman’s estranged country star husband performing at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in November.
Other people made calls to boycott the films, TV shows or music of any celebrities attending the event. “RIP MET GALA,” said one person, who got more than 493 likes.
“You can tell that a lot have already taken heat because it’s a low attendance event already,” another person said. “Yup anyone who attends this year is automatically out,” said another.
This year’s gala has faced intense scrutiny following the announcement that Amazon founder Jeff and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, would serve as lead sponsors and honorary chairmen. In addition to concerns about his company’s cooperation with ICE, Amazon’s alleged treatment of its workforce also has caused issues, with the activist group Everyone Hates Elon displaying posters around New York reading: ‘”The Bezos Met Gala: Brought to you by worker exploitation.”
A fashion industry told the Daily Mail: “It’s, quite frankly, very hurtful and very disturbing for (the Bezoses) to be the face of this year’s Met Gala.”
“It feels like a real slap in the face to a lot of people,” this insider also said. “To have a couple that aligns themselves with and have contributed a million dollars to inaugurating a president who has sought to eviscerate DEI, dismantle Roe v Wade, disenfranchise Black voters and crack down on immigration in a way that is so inhumane and horrific, rubs a lot of people the wrong way.”
Original article
Comments