Met Gala 2018: Trump plus other celebs not invited [SLIDESHOW]
The annual Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City has attracted the best and brightest stars in Hollywood this year, but there are a few names that weren’t present and probably won’t be invited ever again. US President Donald Trump is one of those banned from the prestigious event.
Event chair Anna Wintour, who strictly oversees the guest list, previously said Trump would not be invited to the fundraising gala. In an appearance at “The Late Late Show with James Corden” in October, the Vogue editor-in-chief said she would never invite US chief executive back in the ball.
Trump, who was a regular attendee before, last appeared at the gala with wife Melania Trump in 2012. Even though he certainly could afford the rumoured US$30,000 to US$50,000 (AU$40,230 to AU$67,000) individual tickets to the event — not to mention, he now holds the highest office in their country — it doesn’t mean that he would automatically receive an invite.
As Page Six reported last year, it’s up to Wintour’s sole discretion if she wanted a person to come. Individual tickets are not only expensive, but they are exclusively given to handpicked people. And those who would purchase a table, which reportedly goes for about US$275,000 ($369,000) to US$500,000 (AU$671,000), they would still need to submit their guest list to Wintour for approval.
Wintour even apparently oversees which celebrities sit at which table, as well as suggests “ever so gently” which actors and models attend as each designer’s guests. Fame and wealth aren’t the only criteria in getting Wintour’s approval.
In 2016, Calvin Klein requested to have actor Josh Hartnett sit at the brand’s paid table. A Vogue staffer was reportedly heard denying the request because the actor wasn’t very active in Hollywood at that time.
And those fortunately invited for the year should definitely take advantage of it, because once they decline, they wouldn’t be invited back.
“I know people who decided not to go one year because they weren’t around or didn’t like the theme,” Cameron Silver, founder of luxe vintage shop Decades, told Page Six. “Once you do that, you’re not invited back unless you’re triple A-list.”
Apart from Trump, there are some names that have either been invited before but never again or had never ever received an invite. Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe and supermodel Coco Rocha were both previously invited but were reportedly disinvited over the years. Zoe boasted in a New York Times interview that she was more influential than Wintour, and that allegedly was the reason she had been disinvited.
As for Rocha, it could be because she had “wronged” one of Wintour’s friends. Apparently, the supermodel accused Katy Perry of being a copycat after the latter showed up to the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards in the same dress.
Fashion consultant Tim Gunn of the “Project Runway” fame once claimed that his invitation was rescinded in 2006 when he told the New York Post about the time he saw Wintour being carried down five flights of stairs at a fashion show by two bodyguards. He was asked by Vogue to make a retraction but he refused. “We’ve had an open war ever since,” he said.
The glamourous Met Gala for this year, held on Monday, ran the theme Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Several stars stood out, including Blake Lively, whose custom Versace gown took over 600 hours to make. “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman also wore a Versace outfit, which was decorated with golden crosses and ornate ivory cape.
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