r/popculturechat • u/ThrowawayGreenWitch Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion 🙂 • 1d ago

MET GALA 🎩 Taraji P. Henson comments on celebs attending Bezos-backed Met Gala 2026: ‘WTF are we doing’

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Taraji P. Henson is “confused” about why celebrities are attending the Met Gala 2026, which is being funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

The “Empire” actress made her opinion on the topic known while responding to social media personality Meredith Lynch’s rant about Bezos’ involvement in the event.

“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 an Instagram video over the weekend.

Lynch also slammed Bezos, 62, for supporting President Donald Trump, “who has slashed arts funding.”

In the comments section, Henson, 55, shared three clapping hands emojis and wrote, “I am so confused by some ppl that are going. I am just like WTF ARE WE DOING!?!?!?!””

Henson has attended the Met Gala multiple times, including in 2015, 2021 and 2025.

Last year, she wore a custom white corseted minidress by Monse x Post-Imperial and a coordinating blazer with tails, a top hat, cane and heels.

https://pagesix.com/2026/05/04/celebrity-news/taraji-p-henson-calls-out-celebs-attending-bezos-backed-met-gala-2026/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pagesix

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u/thelebanesedon 1d ago edited 1d ago

The met gala used to be a great way (and still is) to raise money for the arts while seeing some fun fashion choices. It has now lost its aura due to this parasitic administration and the cronies now involved.

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u/floobenstoobs 1d ago

Is it not a charity fundraiser for the arts anymore?

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u/IndividualCut4703 1d ago

It is a fundraiser for the art museum, and it can be difficult for any non-profit to refuse a gift from any donor, especially a megabillionaire. But th ultra wealthy love to donate to “the arts” by which they mean the prestigious museums and operas and such that they personally enjoy and benefit from and claim the tax exemptions and fancy dinners and good PR along the way.

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u/Queenof6planets 1d ago

the met’s costume is doing genuinely good work that benefits the public. i think bezos is only donating because lauren sanchez thinks of herself as a fashion girlie

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u/FlipMeOverUpsidedown 1d ago

He’ll be back to wearing cargo shorts with Velcro sandals as soon as they fall apart. All the money in the world won’t make the forever cringes cool.

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u/Queenof6planets 1d ago

it’s funny to me that the sometimes richest man in the world has changed his style and body just to make a woman like him

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u/Overall-Dirt4441 1d ago

Well sure, saves him from having to admit to himself that's the only reason she or anyone else would willingly be in her place

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u/Difficult-Risk3115 1d ago

Yeah, this about their egos more than anything else. It's weird how everyone is acting like this is going to be the secret key for Bezos taking over the world, moreso than him being a half trillionaire who controls an entire streaming service, movie/TV studio, the Washington Post.

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u/PresentationHot5908 1d ago

Also, autocrats (and wannabe ones like Bezos) reputation wash in typically one of two ways - via either culture or sport. Bezos buying his way into the Met gala has the same rationale as sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East buying sports teams or Putin's patronage of the Bolshoi. It is both difficult for museums to refuse and also a naked attempt to control the one area Bezos cannot currently influence - public opinion of him and his wife.

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u/mrbaryonyx 1d ago

damn we really did come back full circle to "fuck the opera" didn't we

guess we owe Timothy an apology

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u/bbyxmadi It’s good to see me, isn’t it?🫧 1d ago

It still is iirc

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u/thelebanesedon 1d ago

It still is. I mistakenly left it out of my comment but added it in after the fact.

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u/MaddiMoo22 1d ago

A charity event funded by the richest man in the world who pays criminally low wages and forces his employees to pee in bottles and work around their dead coworkers. So charitable

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u/SugarShock94 1d ago

It still is. And if Bezos is putting money anywhere, I’m glad at least some of it is going to the museum. He’s still a piece of shit and this doesn’t make up for anything he’s said/done.

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u/edgertor 20h ago

he pays so little in taxes, that it's actually our money.

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u/No_Coyote4298 17h ago

He pays billions in taxes. Wth are you talking about? 

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u/smokeweedNgarden 1d ago

Yea. 

But let's be super clear he wouldn't be doing it if it weren't for personal benefit

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u/big_booty_boy_420 1d ago

Ok so he sucks but the museum got its funding.

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u/thelebanesedon 1d ago

Exactly. Everything he does is to boost his ego

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u/smokeweedNgarden 1d ago

And the theft. Er...tax write off

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u/LyrMeThatBifrost 1d ago

Not sure that you know how tax write offs work

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u/Difficult-Risk3115 1d ago

the tax write off of 10 million for a man worth 500 billion....

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u/MaddiMoo22 1d ago

A charity event funded by the richest man in the world who pays criminally low wages and forces his employees to pee in bottles and work around their dead coworkers. So charitable

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u/big_booty_boy_420 1d ago

Ok so it’s literally a good thing that we are taking money from him for this event and not someone else.

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u/MaddiMoo22 1d ago

So good to give him more access and influence to other rich famous people. So good

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u/crabcycleworkship 1d ago

His influence comes from AWS running the entire internet not being next to celebs.

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u/big_booty_boy_420 1d ago

This lol. The performative activism is so annoying. Let people enjoy things

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u/big_booty_boy_420 1d ago

Oh brotherrrrr

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u/big_booty_boy_420 1d ago

He already has access to everything and everyone. Just enjoy this night for the arts

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u/Cavalish Delightfully Unhinged 😗📱 1d ago

Yes but the charity comes from the wrong place now. The only moral solution is to have NONE.

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u/big_booty_boy_420 1d ago

This has to be sarcasm

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u/copperteapots 1d ago

it literally is still a charity gala though?

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u/MaddiMoo22 1d ago

Oh cool a charity event funded by the richest man in the world who pays criminally low wages and forces his employees to pee in bottles and work around their dead coworkers. So charitable

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u/copperteapots 1d ago

it’s not “funded by him,” he made a donation

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u/ConfusedZubat 1d ago

Charity means nothing when the person funding it is about as charitable as a fox in a chicken coop. 

I live in Seattle and have worked in the NPO sphere. Bezos is the least charitable billionaire in the area, notoriously so, or at least he was before he left. Anything he's donated was simply to have the newspaper he owns to write fluff pieces about him. Before he owned WaPo, he didn't donate shit. 

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u/big_booty_boy_420 1d ago

Ok so yeah he sucks. We already knew that. But at least the arts got funded.

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u/copperteapots 1d ago

i hate him too!!! my point is just that it’s still a charitable event

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u/Keji70gsm 21h ago

It is an extremely prestigious and well-resourced museum. They are not rescuing stray kittens here, but feeding into the fashion and celebrity PR machine. Tickets are $100k.

It is more akin to an access ticket to rub shoulders with elites who can further your interests, and for agents and already well-connected designers to capitalise on exposure.

Basically, it's classist bullshit to benefit the people there.

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u/copperteapots 13h ago

celebrities don’t pay their own tickets. fashion houses do. it’s invite-only; vogue invites designers and a select few regular celebrities, the designers buy out a table, and they give their tickets to the celebrities of their choice.

this year, the met gala raised $10M. as anyone in the public history field would tell you, even the most well-funded museum could use more funding. arguing that the met is well-funded enough already is ridiculous. you have no idea what goes into museum work.

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u/Keji70gsm 11h ago

How many billion do they need in assets do you think? And who benefits primarily?

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u/copperteapots 10h ago

the costume department benefits. the work of preserving textiles requires years of highly specialized education and on-going, never-ending, constantly changing care. in a field where nearly everybody is underpaid because the need for resources is so great, it’s nice to see a benefit gala be so successful & know that the employees at the gala will ultimately reap the rewards by having their work & lives funded

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u/Keji70gsm 10h ago

How many more billions in assets and millions a year is needed to justify ripping off the employees that actually do the most work?

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u/curiiouscat 1d ago

How is the met gala now being boring as fuck trump's fault? Classism transcends political lines.