Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, faced a significant backlash in the lead-up to the 2026 Met Gala, with many questioning his sponsorship and role as an honorary co-chair. The controversy surrounding Amazon's alleged poor workplace conditions and the broader rise in anti-billionaire sentiment were at the forefront of the backlash.
In response to the negative attention, Bezos reportedly considered not attending the Met Gala at all. However, he eventually made an appearance but chose to skip the red carpet, seemingly prioritizing the private gala over the usual photo opportunities.
According to Rob Shuter's Substack newsletter "Naughty But Nice," Bezos even made a pre-Met Gala request regarding guest attendance, specifically asking that Justin Theroux not be present. The actor's portrayal of a billionaire tech mogul in "The Devil Wears Prada 2" reportedly hit a little too close to home for Bezos.
One insider told Shuter, "Justin's character is Jeff, plain and simple. And Jeff has zero sense of humor when the joke is about him or Lauren. He can laugh at almost anything else, but mock him or her, and you're done."
Theroux himself spoke about his character with People in late April 2026, calling him an "idiot." "He's such an idiot," he said at the New York City premiere on April 20. "To be able to be ridiculous, wear ridiculous clothes—I have a really ridiculous hair thing going on, I'm bald, but then it's like my hair's falling out—that was the most fun."
In the movie, Benji is dating Emily Charlton (played by Emily Blunt), who is a senior executive at Dior and eerily similar to Bezos' wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos. "Jeff did not find it funny," a second source told Shuter. "Not the parody, not the performance, not the Lauren angle—none of it."
Another source claimed that Vogue's Global Editorial Director Anna Wintour "follows power, and this year power came with Jeff's money. Jeff paid too much to be mocked in his own room."
This all comes after reports claiming that Sánchez was the "real power player" at the Met Gala. Several insiders told Shuter that she "commanded the kind of attention that stopped conversations, redirected traffic, and pulled the room's most powerful people straight to her table."
One guest revealed, "Inside the room, Lauren was the gravitational center. Anna still had the title, but Lauren had the heat. People weren't chasing Anna's approval—they were chasing Lauren's money."
