The Met Gala is an annual opportunity for Hollywood A-listers to embrace the most outré looks imaginable, but a much-buzzed-about former attendee claims he was axed from Monday’s event for hogging the spotlight in previous years.
Last week, Italian model Eugenio Casnighi posted a series of TikTok videos in which he said he was “fired” from the 2024 Met Gala after capturing too much attention last year.
“I’ve been working for the Met Gala as a model and greeter [in] 2022 and 2023, and I was supposed to do it this year,” he explained in the first clip. “Today’s Friday and the Met Gala is on Monday, and they let me know today that they cut me off, they fired me, because I went viral last year.”
Casnighi didn’t identify any of his former superiors by name. However, he said he had been confirmed to attend this year’s Met Gala for more than a month before he was dismissed from his duties last week.
“Basically they said, ‘You made it about yourself so we can’t have you work there anymore. So I’m sorry, you got laid off, fired ― whatever you want to call it,’” he explained.
The 26-year-old’s presence at the 2023 soirée garnered considerable traction online when he was photographed on the red carpet alongside Kylie Jenner, drawing thirsty comments from viewers in the process.
One particularly buzzed-about clip last year showed him in the background while YouTube influencer Emma Chamberlain interviewed Blackpink’s Jennie Kim.
“Trying to focus on Emma interviewing Jennie but...,” the video’s caption read.
In a second TikTok video, Casnighi said he was “disappointed, but not upset” at being dropped from the Met Gala before then presenting a series of email exchanges with organizers who forbade him from posting any photos or videos from the event.
HuffPost has reached out to representatives of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for comment on Casnighi’s claims but did not immediately hear back.
Although Casnighi wasn’t in attendance at the actual Met Gala, it appears he was permitted to swing by one of the after-parties. On Monday, he shared a short clip on Instagram that showed him at New York’s Mark Hotel in a white tank top and a black blazer, mingling with the likes of Camila Mendes and Jaden Smith.
“Not bad for someone that just lost his job,” he quipped.
