Dear Gossips,

Met Gala hangover. For those of us who were covering the Met Gala and the VMAs before that and TIFF before that…yes. For the people who were actually at the Met Gala? Never.

They partied again, last night. That includes Rihanna, who hosted her own Met Gala party on Monday after the event and then on Tuesday attended Scooter Braun’s dinner party along with Madonna, Quavo, the Biebers, Ed Sheeran, and more.

Speaking of Rihanna, if you were wondering what was under her black coat on Met Gala night, I’m attaching to this post some shots of her and A$AP Rocky arriving at her after-party. Not sure if this is what she ended up changing into but it looks like a t-shirt dress featuring a cut-out at the waist and a completely sheer bottom with strategically placed zig-zag panels.

Rihanna and Rocky, as we know, arrived over three hours late. During that time, people were angsting online about whether or not she would show, and they were disappointed over the other people who didn’t end up attending. Like Zendaya and Blake Lively, both of whom are working; Zendaya, who is vaccinated, had already said she wouldn’t be there because of production on Euphoria, and Blake, also vaccinated, was last seen doing a cameo on Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell’s Spirited.

As for the others, notables who are Met Gala regulars… well… it spun off a side bar conversation in certain group chats about why they weren’t there. And, um, whether or not it had to do with vaccination. Especially since Nicki Minaj has been on social media posting misinformation and f-cksh-t about vaccines. It’s totally irresponsible what she’s doing but she just happens to have told on herself. There are probably many others out there who feel the same way but they just haven’t exposed themselves, at least not yet. I can definitely think of one model in particular who might have an issue with vaccines.

More and more though, this is going to be a thing. The Emmys are coming up this weekend and the Television Academy is requiring all attendees to show proof of vaccination and a negative test result on top of that. On a smaller scale, I went to a TIFF-adjacent event a couple of days ago and proof of vaccination was a requirement too, which I was happy to show. Since we are nowhere near the end of the pandemic, or the crest point of the fourth wave, vaccination requirements are going to be a standard for some time. It’s an incentive, then, not only so that you can go to the party, but also so that you can work at the party. In show business, parties aren’t just for play – parties are for promotion and marketing, parties are an extension of the work environment. Where I live in Ontario, Canada, as soon as the government announced the vaccine passport that will take effect in a few weeks, vaccination rates went up right away and there are signs that positivity rates may be flatlining although more data is needed in the coming weeks, especially since we haven’t quite yet seen the full impact of students going back to school.

Where Hollywood is concerned then, my point is, as we approach the Emmys and other major events, it might be really telling who shows up and who doesn’t, and the ensuing conversations about why.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Rihanna Gossip

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