A Fake Photo of Selena Gomez at the 2023 Met Gala Went Viral—and Set a Twitter Record for Most Likes

Only Selena Gomez could have a fake image of herself set a record (!!) and become the most Liked 2023 Met Gala pic on Twitter…without her even attending. Yep, take a second to read that sentence again. And now that you’ve recovered, a refresher: Selena Gomez did not attend this year’s Met Gala, instead opting to head to California from NYC after Only Murders in the Building wrapped filming. She was even photographed on April 24 grabbing a cute sister din with 9-year-old Gracie Teefey in Hollywood. But despite the fact that fans were well aware of Selena’s absence during the fashion celebration, the internet still did its thing and made us feel like she was on the Met steps anyway. *le sigh* Be careful what you wish for, people!

Someone Photoshopped a picture of Lily James’s 2022 Met Gala dress with Selena’s face, and the result spread like wildfire on Twitter, becoming the most Liked 2023 Met Gala pic on the platform despite it being, you know, totally fake.

This is Lily’s Met Gala dress from last year, FWIW:

The actual most Liked real look? That goes to Anne Hathaway’s Versace ensemble, which has 234,000 Likes and 12.3 million views on Twitter. Even so, the fake Selena Gomez pic went on to amass more Twitter Likes than anyone’s *actual* Met Gala look on the platform, according to celebrity news fan account PopFaction. The post has *checks notes* more than 23 million views and 395,500 Likes—figures that’ll no doubt keep skyrocketing with time. No thoughts, just 🤯🤯🤯.

JFYI, Selena has actually attended the Met Gala plenty of times and made her first appearance back in 2014. But the celeb’s last time walking the famed Met steps during the first Monday in May was in 2018—a night with a few beauty blunders, according to Selena herself.

“While I was getting ready for the Met Gala a few years ago, we put on a bit of tanning lotion and it looked beautiful, but as the night went on, it kept getting darker and darker,” she recalled to Glamour UK in February 2022. “When I sat down [inside the event], I saw a photo of myself, and it looked completely orange. And here I am at this prestigious event. My first thought was, I have to get out of here!”

The actor managed to make light of the situation, though, sharing hilarious security footage of herself leaving that Met Gala that night with the caption, “Me when I saw my pictures from MET. 🤷🏽♀️”

I-con-ic.

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