A renowned producer of red carpet events, Cole Walliser, was unexpectedly benched from Sunday's Grammy Awards ceremony amidst a flurry of online controversies, as reported by Variety. During the grand arrivals for music's most prestigious night, social media users and style watchers noticed his absence. Walliser, the field operator who oversees the Glambot, a high-speed mechanical camera capturing glamorous looks for the E! network, was nowhere to be found as the Glambot went up – a stark contrast to weeks of bad headlines that began at this year's Golden Globe awards.
Network insiders confirmed to Variety that Walliser was indeed not hired for Sunday's show, and that the company is rethinking its strategy for future telecasts. The tide turned when Jennifer Lopez's appearance at the Jan. 11 Golden Globes ceremony sparked controversy. A livestream of the carpet showed a stoic Lopez barely acknowledging Walliser as he tried to help her navigate the Glambot's motions, leading many to accuse her of being rude. However, Walliser quickly came to her defense, calling her a pro at working the press line.
The backlash continued when an old email exchange between Walliser and a private citizen hoping to book the Glambot for her wedding was leaked. After numerous blunt exchanges questioning the bride's ability to afford the experience, she informed Walliser she could cover the cost. "I don’t see how you could be since I didn’t say how much it was and could be between $10,000 and $1,000,000," he wrote in widely disseminated screengrabs. "If you wanted to know how much it costs, you just needed to ask – you don’t need to pretend you are going to book it," he concluded.
The subsequent backlash led to an apology from Walliser last week. "The tone in these emails was dismissive and curt, and that is not OK. In 2019, I didn’t have a team around me – it was just myself. I edited every single video, I answered every single email, and I was overwhelmed," he said in an Instagram post. "But that is not an excuse. Everything lands on me."
However, E! wasn't pleased with Walliser's behavior. A production source said the channel, now under the control of Versant following a split from NBCUniversal, is committed to maintaining a respectful and professional environment and does not condone behavior that is inconsistent with its standards. A representative for E! declined to comment on the matter, and a representative for Walliser did not respond to a request for comment.
The Glambot was invented in 2016 by prolific music video and film director Joseph Kahn, and its inventor has been hailed as a tech overlord who promises to make life easier for humans through automation.
