Celebs Who Hate the Met Gala
Getting dolled up the first Monday in May is not for everyone—some stars hate it! Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham and more celebs have publicly denounced Anna Wintour's famed costume ball and lived to tell about it. Will they be invited back? Time will tell. In any case, though, here's what the stars had to say about their less-than-stellar Met Gala experiences...
Zayn Malik
The singer never "knew about" the event until he attended it in 2016 with girlfriend Gigi Hadid—and he only went after he was "swayed" by his former stylist to walk the red carpet. "Now, it's not something I would go to," Malik said in GQ's July 2018 issue. "I'd rather be sitting at my house, doing something productive, than dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on a red carpet...To do the self-indulgent 'Look at me, I'm amazing thing' on the red carpet, it's not me."
Amy Schumer
The Inside Amy Schumer star told Howard Stern that attending the 2016 Met Gala "felt like a punishment" rather than a privilege. "I left not the second I could. I left earlier than I should have been allowed," she recalled.
"It's people doing an impression of having a conversation...I don't like the farce," added Schumer. "We're dressed up like a bunch of f--king a--holes."
Lena Dunham
Th Girls star commiserated with Schumer over the Met Gala in her Lenny Letter. You and I were literally sitting across from each other at the Met Ball, and it was like a crazy countdown to when we could escape. You were like, 'We're honored to be here. We're honored to be here,'" Dunham recalled.
The writer-producer-actress-director left the event early, just like Schumer. "I attempted to grind my ass on Michael B. Jordan for an additional 20 minutes and then left right after you," said Dunham.
Demi Lovato
The former Disney star Instagrammed a comical photo of herself standing awkwardly to the side of designer Jeremy Scott and Nicki Minaj at the 2016 Met Gala. "This picture pretty much summed up my first and probably last met," wrote Lovato. "#cool #sof--kingawkward #notforme #sweatpants #forensicfiles #whatsgood"
Tina Fey
The writer-actress wasn't exactly fond of her experience attending the 2010 Met Gala. She later jokingly suggested to former Late Show host David Letterman that he should "drink contact-lens fluid" in order to avoid attending.
"It is such a jerk parade," Fey said. "If you had a million arms and all the people you would punch in the whole world, they're all there."
Gwyneth Paltrow
The actress and lifestyle guru did not have a good experience attending the 2013 Met Gala. "I'm never going again," she said in an interview with USA Today. "It was so un-fun. It was boiling. It was too crowded. I did not enjoy it at all."
And while Paltrow did post a nice recap of the Met Gala on Goop, she's avoided attending the event in recent years.
Tim Gunn
The Project Runway host said he's forever "disinvited" from the Met Gala due to his longtime beef with its host Anna Wintour.
"I was asked what is the most unforgettable thing I've ever seen in fashion," he explained on E!'s Fashion Police, "and I said, 'It's easy. It was watching Anna Wintour being carried down five flights of stairs by two bodyguards—two big hulking men—from a fashion show."
After saying this, "All hell broke loose," Gunn said. "It was insane. So we've had an open war ever since."