Met Gala live updates: The latest on all the celebs’ arrivals | AP News

Fashion’s biggest night, the 2024 Met Gala, is set to begin. Stars will ascend the steps of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art starting around 5 p.m. ET to sip cocktails, eat dinner and sample the new exhibit, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”

It’s not just the swankiest costume party that ever was. There’s a purpose behind the glitz.

The gala functions as a fundraiser for the museum’s Costume Institute and kicks off the annual spring exhibit. It’s raised hundreds of millions for the self-funding department over the years — including a record nearly $22 million last year.

That is the wrong question. One cannot simply walk into the Met with enough cash for a ticket. You have to be invited.

The most common path to an invite? Curry favor with a company. Fashion labels, for instance, will buy a table and then host their desired celebrities.

This year’s price for a table for 10? $350,000.

It’s safe to say yes! After making a grand and very late entrance at last year’s event, Rihanna has said she’s attending — even describing her outfit variously as “chill” and “simple.”

The guest list is a secret until the last minute, but some others — like Dua Lipa and Lily Gladstone — have confirmed their attendance, too.

As Zendaya prepares to co-host the Met Gala, fans and fashionistas are eagerly awaiting how she will interpret this year’s theme, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” with the help of her longterm stylist Law Roach. (May 2)

The Upper East Side is rife with ritzy hotels that serve as a home base for the high-profile Met Gala invitees.

The Mark, which bills itself as “New York’s most boldly lavish hotel,” is just about one avenue and four blocks away from the museum — certainly walkable, not that many opt to do so. The proximity makes it a popular choice for guests. Have we mentioned yet that we have a livestream of departures from the hotel?

The Pierre is another favored choice, advertising itself as the point of departure for “top-tier designers, celebrities and models.”

There’s not a room to be found at the Mark tonight. As of Saturday, the Pierre still had some space. The cheapest price? $1,195 for the night.

The cocktail hour and dinner portions of the event are pretty private, but The Associated Press gets to hang out inside for the first part.

Guests enter the museum, typically walking past an elaborate floral arrangement in the lobby as an orchestra plays nearby, and head to cocktails or the exhibit.

Here’s a sampling of what the AP witnessed last year:

• Jared Leto, decapitated (or de-cat-itated?) of sorts. The actor was carrying the head of his Choupette costume, seeking a “nice quiet seat, so that Chou Chou can take a little rest.”
• Baz Luhrmann visited the Karl Lagerfeld exhibit, reminiscing about visiting the late designer at his Biarritz home.
• Broadway actors Josh Groban (“Sweeney Todd”), Phillipa Soo (“Camelot”), Ben Platt (“Parade”), and Jonathan Groff (“Merrily We Roll Along”) had a joyously impromptu reunion.
• A hardy crew of wait staff, photographers, and museum staffers listened to the cheers of the crowd outside, trying to determine if Rihanna had yet arrived. One scream-eliciting false alarm? The cockroach that briefly became a media darling before dying on the steps.

While the celebrity guests (and select press) get to see the Costume Institute’s “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” today, the exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of the Art won’t open to the public until Friday.

It runs through Sept. 2.

The guest list numbers around 400 people, drawn from the global ranks of film, television, fashion, sports, social media, music, politics and business.

That figure doesn’t include the countless writers, photographers, video journalists, gala staffers, assistants and other mortals permitted on the other side of the barricades for some time.

Conde Nast is the parent company of Vogue, the creative engine behind the Met Gala. Impresario Anna Wintour serves as Conde’s chief global creative officer, too.

The Conde Union had pledged to “take any action necessary to get our contract, including walking off the job ahead of the Met Gala” if the company did not meet the guild at the bargaining table to settle contract negotiations. But a work stoppage was averted as bargaining with management wrapped up at 3 a.m. Monday, securing a tentative contract agreement.

It’s the first contract for the union, which was certified in September 2022 and represents workers at select Conde brands, including Vanity Fair and Vogue. The guild secured wage increases and other benefits and also negotiated terms of layoffs, which have hit the company hard. The contract will go to a vote soon.

Both the guild and the company expressed their happiness at reaching a tentative agreement in statements issued Monday.

Fashion expert Madeline Hirsch discusses the evolution of Met Gala themes over the years, and muses on the 2023 event’s focus on Karl Lagerfeld’s legacy. (April 27, 2023)

For those of you brand new to the Met Gala, it’s a New York staple. But no, it has little to do with one of the city’s baseball teams, as much as we may wish Mr. and Mrs. Met could secure an invite.

The Met Gala is held each year at its namesake, the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the edge of Central Park in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Opened in 1870, it’s one of the largest museums in the world. The main branch is only closed four days a year: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day — and the first Monday in May.

It depends what exactly you’re looking for.

The Associated Press’ Mark Hotel departures livestream starts around 4:45 p.m. Eastern.

The cocktail hour starts at 5:30 p.m. Eastern, a half-hour earlier this year.

The Vogue livestream starts at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Dinner usually starts around 8 p.m. Eastern, though some guests come much, much later.

Vogue has the exclusive livestream of the carpet, which starts at 6 p.m. Eastern at Vogue.com.

Tons of other media will be on-site, too. E! will have a live show (off the carpet). The Associated Press will be live outside the Mark Hotel, capturing the departure of many a high-profile guest for the gala. And you can follow along here for up-to-the-minute updates.

Note that only the red carpet is watchable — the gala’s cocktail hour and dinner are notoriously private events.