Whether you love or hate celebrity culture, the Met Gala is an event. For the less jaded among us, see all the biggest stars take the year’s boldest fashion risks. Unlike an awards show, it’s an event that encourages innovative extravagance. And if you find it all invalid, then you can laugh at what Ed Sheeran’s outfit looks like something Troy Bolton wore in High School Musical 3.
But this year, the Met Gala was an ordeal.
“Katy Perry. This is it,” read one X post. In the photo, Katy Perry wears an oversized dress decorated with three-dimensional floral appliqués. As the pearl gown falls to the ground, its long train fades into realistic-looking moss, which walk the beige and red carpet of the Met Gala.
If you look at the picture for more than a passing glance, you’d think the “Teenage Dream” singer arrived at fashion’s biggest night wearing this whimsical forest-like dress. But in all other Met Gala photos, the carpet was white and green as part of the “Garden of Time” theme. in this photo, it’s beige and red. Why does Katy seem to be walking on a different carpet?
This is the telltale sign that this viral picture of Perry is fake. And yet it already has more than 10 million views on X and over 300,000 likes.
Minutes later, another user on X posted another picture of Perry. Her lips are slightly parted as if surprised by the paparazzi and she wears a bronze corset that looks like a garden key. Unlike the first image, this one actually has the right color palette and setting for this year’s gala, but something is still off. Her floral skirt looks like it’s cut and glued to her body, and the light hits her corset in an unnatural way.
So how do you know it’s fake, as opposed to a weird photo? No fashion magazine has mentioned Katy Perry’s appearance tonight – it doesn’t look like she’ll actually be attending this year. Meanwhile, Perry cryptically liked both viral tweets, but did not comment on the misleading posts.
Every year at the Met Gala, Rihanna is among the best dressed. In the days leading up to the event, she promised her fans she’d be at the event in time for dinner — she’s usually fashionably late. She actually dye her hair pink for the occasion.
At the earlier end of the red carpet, an image emerged of Rihanna wearing a strikingly regal garden-themed gown. The shoulders form a sculpted halo, embroidered with birds, vines and flowers. But again, despite receiving 2.6 million views, the image is not real. Rihanna dyed her hair pink, remember? Like Perry, Rihanna is nowhere to be seen. People Magazine reported that Rihanna had to skip Monday evening’s festivities after coming down with the flu.
The consequences of a fake Rihanna dress are very small. But based on Rihanna’s story nailing the Met Gala theme, would she really take the easy way out and wear a floral gown to the ‘Garden of Time’ celebration? Like an AI deepfake Drake song, these synthetic looks were pretty much lacking the creativity that makes the Met Gala unique. Could an AI find Cynthia Erivo’s brilliant suit or Lana Del Rey creepy-cool woody look?
Zendaya, an early best-dressed champion, showed up in a teal outfit that made her look like a super-chic fairy tale villain. Hours later, when an image surfaced of Zendaya wearing a black leather gown and floral headpiece on the carpet, I was forced to believe it was yet another fake photo. But the truth is stranger: After a five-year absence from the gala, Zendaya actually walked the carpet twice in two different clothes. Go figure.
However, each new image of a celebrity served as an invitation to check out the patterns on the carpet, the flowers along the stair railings, and whether or not the paparazzi in the background looked a little funky. Usually, the Met Gala is an opportunity to discuss outlandish celebrity outfits as a brief distraction from Monday nights. But in the age of widespread artificial intelligence tools, celebrity culture serves as a constant reminder that we can’t believe everything we see online.
