‘Don’t go to an event that costs $100k’: Sarah Paulson’s Met Gala wealth protest is the most hypocritical thing you’ll see today

The 2026 Met Gala has made headlines again, and not for good reasons. Actress Sarah Paulson, known for her roles in American Horror Story, showed up to the event with a dollar bill stuck over her eyes. The intention was to make a statement about wealth inequality.

According to Brobible, the Met Gala costs $100,000 per seat, making it one of the most exclusive events in the world. This year, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, served as honorary chairs after donating $10 million. The event is widely seen as a symbol of extreme wealth and excess.

The irony of Paulson’s protest was not lost on people online. As one social media user put it, “This is the worst one at the Met Gala. Sarah Paulson’s dollar bill mask is some sort of protest against the 1% of which she is a part. If you want to protest the rich don’t go to an event that costs $100k per ticket. And give your $12m net worth away.”

Protesters outside the Met Gala made a far more genuine point about wealth and labor

In the days leading up to the event, a group called Labor is Art staged protests outside. The group brings together Amazon workers, their unions, and supporters, and their message was aimed directly at Jeff Bezos and his wife. The backlash over Bezos’s $10 million sponsorship of the event had already been building before the night even began.

One of the protesters was Samari Jomar Mercado, a 37-year-old Amazon warehouse employee and Puerto Rican model. She told The Guardian that she was protesting because “billionaires are not the most important people in the world. The most important are the people, and when the people work for billionaires they’re just making them more money.”

Chris Mejia, a designer and fellow protester, also spoke about the disconnect between the fashion industry and the people who actually do the work behind it. “Fashion is an art and I think it should be more of a celebration of the people doing the hard work,” he said. The tension around the event extended beyond protests, as a celebrity stylist being stopped by police before the Met Gala also drew attention.

The contrast between the protesters outside and Paulson’s stunt inside the event was hard to ignore. The workers standing outside had real grievances, while Paulson attended a $100,000-per-seat event and wore a prop on her face to signal her concern about the very same issues.

If the goal was to highlight wealth inequality, attending one of the most expensive and exclusive events in the world while doing it is a strange way to go about it. The message gets lost when the messenger is sitting inside the room they are supposedly protesting against.