The scene outside the Carlyle hotel’s entrance erupted in a shouting match Monday before the 2025 Met Gala as a blond woman in a gray sweatsuit argued with law enforcement while attempting to enter the celebrity-packed building.
“I’m a guest at this hotel,” “I’m so mad right now” and “I don’t want to talk to you. I need your [badge] number” could be heard from the woman on Reuters’ live camera feed, which was set up to record the A-listers as they headed out to the Met from their five-star lodgings.
Almost immediately, the woman came back and entered the hotel accompanied by people who appeared to be Carlyle employees.
Turns out the “furious guest,” as the Daily Mail called the woman, was actually celebrity stylist Jessica Paster, who had been retained by the likes of Olympian Simone Biles, actor Quinta Brunson and model Miranda Kerr to help with preparations for the gala. Page Six made the identification.
Fans, reporters and photographers were crammed around the red carpet leading out of the Carlyle and witnessed the heated encounter. The fundraiser for the Costume Institute was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art about six blocks from the hotel.
“I want to say that I am just a person staying at a hotel minding my own business, having the credentials on my wrist and I got manhandled,” Paster told Page Six on Tuesday, explaining that she had listened and did what she was told to do.
She said she had gone to the service entrance, as directed, and was told by the folks at the service entrance to head back toward the lobby and use the main entrance. The NYPD didn’t seem OK with that. “All of a sudden,” she told the outlet, “they attacked me, they manhandled me.”
She told Page Six she was in pain and dubbed the cop “lucky” that she didn’t break Paster’s arm. Her assistant added, “Anyone would have the reaction [she did] if they were grabbed out of nowhere after following instructions.”
Paster, who at one point started taking photos of the officers who were physically ushering her away from the hotel entrance, managed the entire brouhaha while keeping hold of a Sephora bag she had in hand.
A “chic source” told the New York Post’s gossip column that “literally everyone was sending [the video] to each other” as the gala unfolded. ¡Escándalo!
“A female attempted to enter the main entrance of the Carlyle Hotel when she was stopped and denied entry by hotel security,” the NYPD said in a statement to media outlets.
“The individual attempted to enter the hotel a second time after being denied when officers intervened and stopped the female from entering. She was told she needed to go through the service entrance and obtain proper credentials. This female was escorted to the service entrance by police where she was then re-escorted to the main entrance by hotel security and allowed entry.”
If that’s what being “escorted” looks like on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, we’ll go solo, thank you.
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