I want to know who it was. Who, at Vogue, had the foresight to know that Keke Palmer would absolutely transform the Met Gala carpet, which is crazy-loud in person but eerily quiet on live feeds… until now? 

Because I want that person to be my best friend, because they knew, like I knew, like Cody knows, that Keke Palmer is an incredibly special talent. 

 

IT IS SO HARD to do what she did last night! Red carpet interviews, at their best, must be fast, fun (better yet if they’re funny), and let each person who stops in have their own moment. That level of energy + information download is really hard to maintain, and it’s doubly difficult when the whole thing is live. And Keke KILLED it – there are thousands of people who didn’t know her yesterday and love her today, because all the celebrities loooooved her too. How could they not? 

 

Even when things went unscripted, Keke rolled with it, because she’s a professional who understands live television (she had a talk show on BET and so frequently and expertly guest-hosted on Strahan and Sara it was changed to Strahan, Sara and Keke): 

Impressive, right? The Met Gala is always visually arresting but the celebs wearing the look are often overwhelmed – exponentially more this time, as everyone’s way out of practice, and don’t have a lot to say. But you could almost feel the stars exhale and relax when they spoke to her, knowing she was going to find a way to make them both have a moment while looking like it was no sweat. 

 

Then again, maybe it is no sweat. After all, she takes her inspiration from the best: 

I have long, long, loooonnng been obsessed with this woman and her talent and her energy, letting anyone who would listen know how incredible she was. I was already at a fever-pitch of obsessed with her when she guested on Degrassi… and have continued to be:

But this isn’t about me being smug. It’s about someone out there finally recognizing what Keke had to offer and signing all the way up. She is 100% herself, she is having a great time at what we heard, over and over, was her first Met Gala, she looked amazing…

 

But don’t let that make you forget that she was working her ass off and making it look so easy and chill, because it’s not at all, and that level of comfort and relaxedness in an utterly false environment is in itself a highly skilled professional achievement. 

I can only imagine how proud she is of herself today, and how many gifts and flowers and congratulatory texts are coming in. Although, as Lainey points out, it’s possible Anna Wintour won’t be among them. Because on the one hand, Keke single-handedly made the carpet appointment viewing (as opposed to just scrolling photos). On the other hand, she apparently used her phone inside the gala, and apparently Anna doesn’t like that. And what she used her phone for was, um, this: 

Keke Palmer FOREVER. Don’t say you weren’t told.