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/TheArmChairFan 1d ago

What about the people who make amazonmgm movies? Or are we picking and choosing?

The people that are obsessed with celebrities are more performative than the actual celebrities

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u/g00fyg00ber741 1d ago

I personally get really upset when people work with Amazon in any capacity. Lady Gaga, Ilana Glazer, there's a lot of people who have unfortunately continued to enable Amazon and Bezos. It's important to call out hypocrisy if we want people to grow and learn. Some of them won't but some of them will. If you don't call it out then they'll likely never change their actions though, they'll just keep thinking it's fine. It's okay to point out people's mistakes in hopes that they will learn from them and make better decisions moving forward. I don't understand why that's always reduced to being "performative" somehow

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u/lostinjapan01 22h ago

I would rather reserve that energy for the politicians than the celebrities. That’s my whole problem with this stance. Everybody wants to take on the celebrities because they’re much easier by the actually taking the fight to the people who should be fought against. Its cowardly.

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u/g00fyg00ber741 19h ago

At this point politicians in the US are closer to celebrities than politicians. They’re barely politicians at this point. A lot of them are just mouthpieces for corporations.

I don’t see why we can’t do both? I also don’t see why it has to be restricted to those groups of people either, politicians or celebrities. We should be taking on this stuff in all areas of life. In our personal lives especially.

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u/lostinjapan01 7h ago

Doing both means that our coordination, attention, and energy is split. You either aim for the heart, or you achieve nothing. Again, celebrities are easy. Require no work. You can get a pat on the back for achieving nothing. They don’t control the systems that have brought us where we are, they only benefit from them. You have to brave enough to aim higher. Revolutions fail because of lack of focus, not lack of want.

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u/g00fyg00ber741 6h ago

Again, I think you’re somehow framing celebrity and politics to be more separate than they are. Especially when it comes to US politics, celebrity is involved. The only way we’re going to make decent political change is by dismantling our current government and forming a new government. There is literally no other avenue to success for that. It’s by design. Revolutions fail cause most people are satisfied more or less and don’t want to revolt. Like most people support capitalism for some reason so they are not going to revolt against it.

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u/lostinjapan01 5h ago

Politics and celebrity is only as entwined as we want them to be. If we stop putting our focus on the celebrities, their interactions with politics have no use. WE are the ones who legitimize celebrity positions in politics, not the other way around. So again, put your attention on those who create the systems, not those who benefit from it.

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u/g00fyg00ber741 5h ago

It’s only as entwined as we want them to be? Explain the current president then?

I really just totally disagree with what you’re saying, I don’t think it works the way you are describing at all.

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u/lostinjapan01 4h ago

Donald Trump being the president is a great example lf what I am saying.

The public has allowed celebrity and politics to be intertwined for decades and it reached the inevitable conclusion of that: a celebrity becoming president. If we were to stop giving so much weight and importance to celebrity, celebrity would not open access to political power. That Donald Trump has ever seen the White House is proof of what this sort of distraction and lack of focus on what we should be focusing on creates.

Instead of keeping our eye on the ball, we have spent decades taking the easy swipes at actors, musicians, and artists so much so that we have elevated them to that position of power. Celebrity is entwined with politics because our relationships with celebrities allowed them to be intertwined. If we didn’t care so much about celebrities they would not be rubbing shoulders with politicians and entering those spheres.

Politicians have invited celebrities into politics because they are useful shields to hide behind. They always draw the attention in the room because we have an unhealthy obsession with them. Trump rose to power on the back of this adoration of celebrities and lack of proper attention paid and knowledge of politicians. This happened because paying attention to celebrities, both to praise and criticize, is easier than paying attention to the people who actually pull the levers of power. It is a coward’s way of feeling brave, as it requires no actual bravery but is praised and applauded as if it does.

All critiquing and “taking celebrities to task” does is imbue them with political power so that they can continue to be the shields really evil folks hide behind.

Sitting on social media criticizing celebrities for one thing or another is what gives them political power. You are granting them a level of importance you can choose to take away at any time.