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Fashion's biggest night is underway after all, it is the first Monday in May. Follow along for real-time updates on the 2023 Met Gala from The Associated Press. We'll be bringing you news in all formats, all day and all night, from the carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and behind the scenes. This year's theme revolves around late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

Live updates are contributed by Leanne Italie, Jocelyn Noveck, Beatrice Dupuy, Lindsey Bahr, Elise Ryan, Mallika Sen and other AP journalists.

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IS RIHANNA AT THE MET GALA?

Yes! About an hour and a half after reporters were told to expect one more guest in about 15 minutes, Rihanna herself arrived at the Met Gala. She ascended the steps in voluminous white bedecked with rosettes that doubled as a hood, accompanied by A$AP Rocky in a kilt-type layer over jeans (reminiscent of mid-aughts Disney Channel couture).

It's just May and it's already been a year of grand entrances for Rihanna, who revealed her pregnancy during her Super Bowl appearance in February.

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MET GALA COCKROACH, 2023-2023

The cockroach has been stepped on. While it's possible the cockroach was born in 2022, given that they have an adult lifespan of around six months, we reckoned that lifespan shortens significantly in New York City.

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IS RIHANNA AT THE MET GALA?

No. At least, not yet. It's 10:05 p.m.

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MEANWHILE, A CUTE MOMENT

While we wait, here's a cute moment witnessed by AP's Brooke Lefferts: Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union departed and then Britney Griner walked down the Met steps to cheers. Wade came back in to hug Griner, chatting with her and then FaceTiming his daughter on his phone. He did a pan as all the press yelled and waved: Thanks, he said, I wanted to show my daughter what the Met Gala was like.

Wade has two daughters, 4-year-old Kaavia and 15-year-old Zaya, who is trans. Wade recently said in an interview with Rachel Nichols that his family left Florida because his family wouldn't be accepted, a reference to the state's pursuit of anti-LGBTQ+ policies.

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MYSTERY AT THE MET

It's nearly 9:30 p.m. All the reporters at the Met Gala are in a holding pattern. We've been told someone big is coming, and we've been told that for the last 40 minutes or so. But the identity and the location of the final guest remains a mystery: Is it Rihanna, known for a grand and late entrance? Is it Choupette, coming to extract revenge on Jared Leto? Is it the cockroach that AP's Beatrice Dupuy just saw scurry up the stairs?

Who are you wearing? a reporter yelled. The roach did not respond.

Inside the Met Gala, with cocktails over and done, most had gone inside for dinner. Left behind were the journalists like AP's Jocelyn Noveck, awaiting the whoever or whatever is coming.

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DRESSED TO (THE) NINE(S)

It's 8:50 p.m. and cocktails are long over inside the Met. Dinner was supposed to start at 8 p.m. But it seems as if the carpet has some life still left in it, even with appearances by what would be showstoppers like Jeremy Pope in a massive Karl Lagerfeld cape at any other event already gone by.

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THE BUZZ ABOUT FLORENCE PUGH

Florence Pugh did not hold back for her Met Gala debut. The 27-year-old actor surprised onlookers with a shaved head, adorned with a sky-high feathered headpiece by Valentino. Her gown, also Valentino, was white with a black ribbon.

Pugh has sported several showstopping Valentino looks lately, including at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Dont Worry Darling and then again at the Oscars earlier this year. Last week she revealed that she was the new star of Valentinos Rockstud bag campaign.

But it was her hair that drew the most attention. Some onlookers wondered if it was a wig.

In an interview last week with the New York Times she teased that her Met Gala look was going to be big.

The idea is to be as bold as possible. I love the power that it gives me. I love how it sparks conversation, Pugh said. Every time I step out in whatever dress, thats a version of me that Im really proud of. So it doesnt matter if people dont necessarily like it. I dont think anything that I do has to be 100% loved. Things being up for debate is good. It means people are interested."

Just last week, Pugh attended an event with a long blonde bob with bangs.

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BRITNEY GRINER SPEAKS OUT

Brittney Griner knows she has an advantage over other Americans being detained overseas as a public figure with access to media.

The WNBA star used that influence on the carpet at the Met Gala to talk about helping support families working to free Americans jailed in foreign prisons through the organization Bring Our Families Home, dressed in Calvin Klein and alongside her wife

The 6-foot, 9-inch Griner is finally taking on a more public profile after being traded for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on Dec. 8, 10 months after she was arrested at a Moscow airport. Authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. She later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Griner recently appeared at an event with Al Sharpton and attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington on Saturday. She had her first news conference since her release in preparation for the upcoming basketball season, which starts May 19.

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PRECIOUS LEE ON FATPHOBIA

Model Precious Lee only had only positive things to say about Karl Lagerfelds designs Monday at the Met Gala. Its alluring, seductive, captivating, timeless, elevated, Lee told The Associated Press.

Lee, a plus-sized model, wore a black Fendi gown with a hot pink Fendi baguette purse for the night.

She did not have any direct comment about Lagerfelds comments about fat people, but simply said, Im fat. Always have been, always will be.

Lagerfeld was not shy about his own fatphobia and did not think he should have to cast models of different sizes in his shows.

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SERENA WILLIAMS PREGNANT, TOO!

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian announced they were expecting a baby during a Vogue livestream interview with La La Anthony.

The tennis superstar announced she would retire from the sport in August, saying she wanted to focus on her business interests and having another child.

Williams and Ohanian beamed as they told Anthony there were three of them up there for the interview. Then Ohanian and Anthony both offered to have a drink on Williams' behalf inside.

The couple has a 5-year-old daughter, Olympia. Williams actually announced her intention to step away from tennis in an essay for where else? Vogue.

Earlier in the night, Karlie Kloss also announced she was pregnant.

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WHO'S THAT CAT?

New York's rat czar can rest easy the cats have overrun the Met. There's still no Choupette (how many times can we link to our story on her absence?), but the attendees are stepping up:

1. Jared Leto talked to AP's John Carucci as Choupette. He didn't just channel her spirit from across the ocean that was him in a giant, white fursuit complete with heart-melting eyes. At some point, though, the head came off, at which point it looked alarmingly like a medieval battle trophy.

2. Lil Nas X talked to cameras in meows. If you speak Cat, help meow-t. The singer's look was crystallized cat, created by Pat McGrath and Dior Men.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this item said Leto told the AP he lost a bet. He, in fact, said C'est moi, Choupette. ("It's me, Choupette").

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DOJA CAT. THAT'S THE HEADLINE.

Doja Cat leaned into her name and love of cats for her first Met Gala look. The rapper arrived on the carpet with makeup and prosthetics that gave her a felines face, cat claws for her nails and sequined dress with cat ears.

Im just really happy about it and I feel sexy, she said of the look.

The makeup took 45 minutes to an hour and getting the dress on took about 20 minutes.

Doja Cat said the inspiration for her look came immediately when she heard this years theme, which honors the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, who counted among his many muses his cat Choupette.

We just went for it, she said.

A viewer of AP's livestream of departures from the nearby Mark Hotel could purr-dict that something was afoot. Doja left ensconced in a phalanx of umbrellas, much to the chagrin of the present fans, photographers and video journalists.

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ACCESSORIES JOURNALISM

Its all in the details. Some notable accessories on the carpet:

3. Chloe Finemans cat-shaped bag, a Choupette substitute (were really sad the cat didnt come, if you couldnt tell. This isnt an accessory, but Emma Chamberlain wore Choupette blue, by the way)

4. Rita Oras long, jeweled chain nails

5. Irina Shayks ballet flats

6. David Byrnes bicycle, complete with a handbasket

7. Chloe Malles Alices Adventures in Wonderland purse

8. An unrecognizably blonde Jessica Chastain's sunglasses (that she was asked to remove because no one could tell who she was)

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SIGH: WHO WORE IT BEST?

What would Karl say? Actor and filmmaker Olivia Wilde and Margaret Zhang, Vogue China's editor-in-chief, showed up to the Met Gala in what appeared to be the same Chloe dress in different colors. Wildes was white and Zhangs was black, but both had a gold embellishment that resembled a guitar on their torsos.

The fashion faux pas caught fire on social media as people pulled out old jokes about the dress that some people saw as blue and black and some people saw as white and gold.

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KARLIE KLOSS' SECRET PLUS-ONE

No one gets an automatic plus-one to the Met Gala unless you're Karlie Kloss. Accompanied by her husband Josh Kushner, Kloss revealed her pregnancy in an interview with Emma Chamberlain on the Vogue livestream much to the host's excitement.

Kloss and Kushner also have a son, born in 2021.

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BOB IGER ALL SMILES AMID LAYOFFS AT HAUS OF MOUSE

Disney CEO Bob Iger was all smiles on the Met Gala carpet amid massive layoffs at the company and a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday over the Republicans takeover of its theme park district, alleging the governor waged a targeted campaign of government retaliation after the company opposed a law critics call Dont Say Gay.

Iger said the Met Gala is one of the best nights of the year. Iger said that the Met Gala may be second to the happiest place on earth but that its the happiest night on earth.

When asked about the lawsuit Iger told the AP that he had nothing more to say than what weve already said.

The Walt Disney Co. last week also went through a second round of layoffs this year in an effort to cut 7,000 jobs before the summer.

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HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS AND SO IS GISELE

Gisele Bndchen looked happy and confident on the Met Gala carpet, wearing a white sequined Chanel gown with a white feathered cape draped on her shoulders with her hair in long, beachy waves.

The supermodel wore the gown previously, in 2007, for a Harpers Bazaar Korea shoot, shot on location by Lagerfeld.

The last time Bndchen attended the Met Gala was in 2019 with then-husband Tom Brady. The pair divorced in October.

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MICHAELA COEL IS HERSELF

What I like about you is you're unafraid to be yourself. That's what Michaela Coel said Anna Wintour told her when she asked why she was picked as a co-chair of this year's gala. Coel told Vogue livestream host La La Anthony that Wintour likened the British multihyphenate to Lagerfeld in that way.

I'm just out here being myself," Coel declared, clad in a Schiaparelli dress with more than 130,000 crystals and chain embellishment.

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QUINTA BRUNSON DID HER HOMEWORK

On brand for her Abbott Elementary character, Quinta Brunson knows her fashion and studied up before her first Met Gala.

Visit link:
Met Gala 2023 Live Updates: Fashion Highlights From Carpet - NBC New York