The 1 Celebrity Jeff Bezos Banned from the Met Gala Revealed Amid Report Lauren Sánchez Was the Real Power Behind the Event
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos faced major scrutiny ahead of the 2026 Met Gala, with backlash tied to his sponsorship of the event and his role as an honorary co-chair. Many pointed to ongoing controversy around Amazon, specifically concerns over its alleged poor workplace conditions, alongside a broader rise in anti-billionaire sentiment.
In response to the negative attention, Bezos reportedly considered not attending the Met Gala. He eventually showed up but skipped the red carpet, seemingly prioritizing the private gala over the usual photo ops.
Rob Shuter reported via his Naughty But Nice Substack that Bezos even made a pre-Met Gala request regarding guest attendance, specifically asking that Justin Theroux not be present because the actor’s billionaire tech mogul character in The Devil Wears Prada 2 reportedly hit a little too close to home.
“Justin’s character is Jeff, plain and simple,” one insider told Shuter. “And Jeff has zero sense of humor when the joke is about him — or Lauren. He can laugh at almost anything else. But mock him, mock her, and you’re done.”
Theroux spoke about the movie with People in late April 2026, going as far as to call his character, Benji Barnes, an “idiot.”
“He’s such an idiot,” he told the outlet at the New York City premiere on Monday, April 20. “To be able to be ridiculous, wear ridiculous clothes—I have a really ridiculous hair thing going on, I’m bald, but then it’s like my hair’s falling out—that was the most fun.”
In the movie, Benji is dating Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), who’s a senior executive at Dior and is now eerily similar to Bezos’ wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
“Jeff did not find it funny,” a second source told Shuter. “Not the parody, not the performance, not the Lauren angle—none of it. And once Jeff was offended, Justin was never getting through that door.”
Another claimed that Vogue‘s Global Editorial Director Anna Wintour “follows power, and this year power came with Jeff’s money. Jeff paid too much to be mocked in his own room.”
This comes after reports claiming Sánchez was the “real power player” at the Met Gala. Several insiders told Shuter’s Naughty But Nice that she “commanded the kind of attention that stopped conversations, redirected traffic, and pulled the room’s most powerful people straight to her table.”
“Inside the room, Lauren was the gravitational center,” one guest revealed. “Anna still had the title, but Lauren had the heat. People weren’t chasing Anna’s approval—they were chasing Lauren’s money.”
