Cockroach Goes Viral After Crashing the 2023 Met Gala Red Carpet

Anna Wintour certainly did not approve this Met Gala guest. 

A cockroach has gone viral for crashing fashion's biggest night on Monday, scurrying down the red carpet before falling victim to death by stomping. The whole saga was captured by reporters on the scene and shared on social media. 

In a video and Twitter thread by Variety, photographer Kevin Mazur is seen snapping a pic of the bug before attempting to squish it with his shoe. While Mazur shows off his shot to Variety, the final image does not appear to have landed on photo subscription site Getty Images with the rest of the event's red carpet snaps. And while Mazur first appears unsuccessful in his attempt to eradicate the pest, it was stepped on in the end.

The Cut shared an alternate angle of the scene on Instagram, calling the cockroach "New York's unofficial mascot."

The jokes poured in from commenters, with a few parody accounts popping up as well. Some photoshopped top hats and ties on the cockroach, while others likened it to various celebs. 

It wasn't long before the red carpet was saturated in star power, with A-listers serving high fashion and glamor in honor of the late Karl Lagerfeld. Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, Jared Leto and many, many, many more were among the celebs in attendance for the high-profile New York event.

The public-facing (read: red carpet) side of the evening is the event's trademark. Guests make waves on the museum's steps with their avant-garde fashion choices before heading inside, where press, phones and social media are strictly forbidden. 

The theme of this year's Met Gala was "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" and celebrated the full work and life of the late designer. The dress code was "in honor of Karl." 

After the theme was announced in September, it sparked backlash due to Lagerfeld's alleged past problematic comments, including in 2009 that "no one wants to see round women." In 2018, he also said he was "fed up" with the #MeToo movement.

The co-chairs for the spring fashion event, which is officially dubbed the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute benefit, were Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, Dua Lipa, Roger Federer, and Vogue editor-in-chief Wintour, who is known to hand-curate the guest list. The annual gala is a fundraiser for New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The coinciding exhibition -- which opens to the public on May 5 and closes July 16 -- features 150 of Lagerfeld's designs from Chanel, Balmain, Patou, Fendi, Chloe as well as his own personal line and are accompanied by his sketches. The Chanel creative director died in February 2019. He was 85.

"I hope everybody made him proud," Cardi B told ET of the late Chanel designer, before joking, "He's probably in Heaven like, 'Yes! No.'"

Find more of Entertainment Tonight 's coverage from fashion's biggest night here, including all of the jaw-dropping red carpet looks.

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