FULL MET GALA DEBRIEF DROPS IN THIS FEED AT 5PM
The Met Gala is happening right now — and we’re breaking the rules to bring you a special pre-game episode before the full debrief drops later today.
In this mini episode, we’re getting you across everything you need to know before the red carpet chaos fully unfolds — from this year’s theme and what it actually means, to the celebrities who aren't there (and why that matters more than you think).
Plus, the controversy already brewing behind the scenes — including the backlash surrounding Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s involvement, the politics creeping into fashion’s biggest night, and the quiet celebrity boycott that could define the entire event.
This is your essential Met Gala 2026 primer — because later today, we’re coming back with the full deep dive: every look, every headline, and every moment everyone will be talking about.
Love binge-watching TV? The Spill has launched a new podcast called Watch Party where we deep dive into the shows everyone’s talking about. Follow the feed on Apple or Spotify now.
Plus remember The Spill drops the tea twice a day in this feed so follow us for all the latest entertainment news…
OR you can WATCH our show in full length video on the Apple Podcast app - make sure your phone is up to date and enjoy the watch! Link here.
THE END BITS
Find and follow us on socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespillpodcast/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thespillpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thespillpodcast/
Read all the latest entertainment news on Mamamia: https://mamamia.com.au/entertainment/
Support Independent Women’s Media:
https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe/
Your subscription helps us continue to tell the stories that matter to women.
Want to join the conversation?
Have feedback or a topic you want us to discuss? Send us a voice message or email us at thespill@mamamia.com.au and we’ll get back to you ASAP!
Executive Producer: Monisha Iswaran
Audio & Video Producer: Michael Kean
Mamamia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we have recorded this podcast.
From Mamma Mia.
00:02
Speaker 2
Welcome to The Spill, your daily pop culture fix. I'm Laura Brodnick and I'm Tiner Burk, and welcome to a history making episode of The Spill. Because in the six years I've been hosting this podcast, we've never done this before. So Tina, it's a big day for you to be here. So what is happening If you hear the frantic energy in our voices, the flutter in our hearts, just we're in the midst of right now, in real time, in the midst of the twenty twenty six Met Gala.
00:29
Speaker 3
Absolutely wild time's happening here.
00:31
Speaker 2
So we're in the studio. The flurry of the red carpet is still happening outside. And here's the thing about the Met Gala, guys, I'm know if anyone else is across this, there's a lot of celebrities there.
00:40
Speaker 1
There's a lot of dresses.
00:41
Speaker 2
And we know we normally drop out big episode, like our full episode every day at three pm. That has been the rule. But today we're breaking the rules slightly. So we're coming to you now with a little teaser. So I hope you didn't look at the time and say, oh my God, their Metgala episode is fifteen minutes. Guys, my intros are fifteen minutes. We could ever so never fear. The full Met Garlett episode is actually dropping in the spill feed later today, but we needed time to do boots on the ground, or at least boots on the Getty on the Getty video images to make sure that we saw all the dresses that we could bring you a full recap that we were across all the celebrity drama, we were across the interviews, we were across just all the bits and pieces, so that we're not bringing you half an episode exactly. I would never It is a long red carpet. It kicks off at eight and it goes to a lunch time like it's a long deal, you know. And yeah, and spoiler alert for I guess how that what if Merrel Streeps said me the other day named us how the sausage is made behind the scene. Is that we normally record at eleven, which means we would have missed all the dresses. So we're coming to you today with just a little update to tide you over of what you can expect in our Met Garlett episode. Because what we do know so far, so we're coming to you from the past. We don't know what's going to happen. Like a ghost of Christmas Pass. That's the ghost of Metgala's pass. We don't know what's going to happen yet. But it's kind of shaping up to be a bit controversial, is that right, Teterburg?
02:06
Speaker 3
It is The Metgala's never without its controversy, especially in recent years. I think as us normal people have gotten more of a glimpse into it on social media. We now understand the cost tickets to go are upwards of one hundred thousand dollars. For like all of the famous stars you see walking the carpet, the clothes they're wearing are worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions sometimes of dollars. The diamonds, the jewels, all of it. It's so luxurious and beautiful, Yes, and I understand why it exists, But for so many people they look at it and they go, what a privilege and waste of money while real people are struggling. And that has really come to a head this year due to the honorary coachairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos. So according to page six, Jeff and Lauren would have paid about ten million dollars to be named honorary coachairs, and that basically means nothing, Like being an honorary coacher doesn't mean anything. It's not like the others who have actual roles in deciding what happens. It's just a title to show like your contribution to the culture. So basically Jeff and Lauren have been like accused of buying their way into the culture, with which I think is kind of fair. Yeah, but I do think that's what's happened here. But there's like an anti oligarch, anti tech activist group called Everyone Hates Elon, and they have been like blasting New York City with papers about boycott the Bezos met Baal. There's all of these signs going up that are anti Amazon, anti Jeff Bezos. And at the same time, also what's happening in New York is that the New York Maya Zoron Mum Danny is going to be like the first New York City first couple to not go to the met Gala, and he's made a statement of like he's looking forward to spending his time focused on making like affordability his priority in the most expensive city in the United States, and he said that's what I'm looking forward to spending my time focused on on the first Monday in May.
03:45
Speaker 1
So so fair.
03:47
Speaker 3
Quite a time period in which to be doing it. So it's made a lot of political discourse pop up about Jeff Bezos and we're definitely going to see I think more of it on the carpet as it keeps unfolding.
03:57
Speaker 2
Yes, So that has caused a bit of a rift in the fashion community, with some people in the fashion community saying we're just not going this year, We're going to sit it out, and then there's some roomored people like, people like is that why Meryl Streep's not going?
04:09
Speaker 1
Is that why end Days not going?
04:11
Speaker 2
I mean, neither of those women is ever going to confirm nor deny anything.
04:14
Speaker 3
But very interesting timing because Zendea's been seven years straight and this is the one she's sitting out of and she's around at the moment that much. We know she's on a lot of press tours for her film, so it actually would be a great year for her to go.
04:25
Speaker 2
Well, yes, but also she is going to have five massive red cars environments this year. That are all her. Whole carpet at every event is all about her. So maybe she thought this year she doesn't have to go. Maybe she's trying to pull a bit of a Beyonce because Beyonce is going to the met Gala this year for the first time since twenty sixteen, so for first time in ten years, and that is one of the reasons that Beyonce has her level of fame. Obviously she's talented and beautiful and all those things, but she's become so elusive.
04:53
Speaker 3
Yeah, she knows when to pull back.
04:55
Speaker 1
A sighting of her is like seeing like a like a what's an animal that's extinct? Nicon?
05:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, well never Yeah, I was gonna say unicorns are extinct.
05:03
Speaker 3
I didn't know you were going to say extinct, and unicorn came out before you were done.
05:06
Speaker 2
I was gonna say, wow, what why were we doing a podcast on that?
05:09
Speaker 1
But it feels like breaking news.
05:11
Speaker 2
I was going to say, like a Tasmanian devil or something like that still look or a Dodo bird if you saw one of those.
05:18
Speaker 1
This is not a wildlife podcast. If you saw one of those, you'd be like, wow, no one ever sees that.
05:22
Speaker 2
That's Beyonce. That is Beyonce because she's so she doesn't need the press. No, she's beyond press. Yeah, well she's beyond so maybe yeah. And I feel like Zenda is going in that way too, absolutely beyond the press as well.
05:32
Speaker 1
Yeah for sure.
05:33
Speaker 3
And like Beyonce's joined by Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour as the co chairs, which means they're kind of like as well as the hosting committee in charge of like figuring out the theme, the guest list, like who's coming all of that jazz. They do have an involved role, the co chairs and the honorary Hosting Committee, which is like fifty celebrities. Yeah, the honorary So like the co chair committee, which I didn't even realize is the thing.
05:54
Speaker 1
It's the host committee.
05:55
Speaker 2
Do we think that they're like getting on a zoom or this sting on a table and someone's bringing snacks and someone's taking notes. I would love to be a fly on the wall for this because the host committee is Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Tiana Taylor.
06:06
Speaker 1
Even just those three, I'd be like, girls, I'll play in the event. You guys just gossip.
06:12
Speaker 2
Lisa from Black Pink, Elizabeth de Becky and Lina Dunham. And also this feels like very kind of prom king and queen. Yeah if you were like school captains in Australia. Is that the host committee? They have two leaders and they are Anthony Vecacalo and Zoe Kravitz.
06:28
Speaker 1
Yeah, why I sell power Doer. Yeah.
06:30
Speaker 3
Yeah, it's going to be really interesting as well, Like I would love to be a fly on the wall and be like, so what.
06:35
Speaker 1
Do you guys talk about?
06:36
Speaker 2
It needs to make a mockumentary about the met Gala hosting committee. Can you imagine like the side threads and the side chats and like WhatsApp groups and stuff that are happening away from the main thread.
06:46
Speaker 3
I do feel like the person who's up for that job is Mindy Kaling because she was involved in The Ocean's Eight when they pretended to rob the met Gala, and that felt like someone's insights who had really been there, And Mindy goes sometimes I reckon she could write us a little bit.
06:58
Speaker 1
Oh my god, Mindy Kaling, please make that happen. How good?
07:01
Speaker 2
Even if you don't want to make it a documentary, you could fictionalize it, but we can tell who you know, like a blonde Dove Cameron like plays Sabrina Carpenter and like so on and so forth, you know what I mean, Like we can tell who's who?
07:13
Speaker 1
Yes, that would have been nice. Actually, that's fine.
07:15
Speaker 2
I love our fan fiction. Maybe that's what we'll dorn the Met this year, which is fan fiction.
07:18
Speaker 1
Of the Malla. That would be delicious.
07:21
Speaker 2
The theme this year, I love it. Every year everyone debates the theme, but most people are unsure what it is. I feel like Sarah Jessica Parker is the only one who really goes in on the theme. Yes, we haven't heard she's going this year, but she is usually on the red carpet the Met, and she puts so much time and effort. She reads like books, she interviews people, she goes deep on it. And then other people are just like, well they said something blah blah blah gardens, so I'm a flower. Yeah, so wait, fair enough fair And then hers is like, oh, you know, the lace from my dress is like mimics the poem that was yeah from the Zeer blah bla blah.
07:56
Speaker 3
Yeah, and you know what really highlighted that was the Sleeping Beauty. Yeah, like that year some people like, I don't know what they were doing. They were really just garden rose in spied outfits. And then yeah, other people were like, well they read this fairy tale from this point in time and the fashion referenced. Yeah, it separates the true art.
08:11
Speaker 1
I love that.
08:12
Speaker 2
So this year's theme is Costume Art, which is named after the new exhibition YEA, and the dress code for the met Gala is fashion is Art and so on. The invitation it said guests are invited to explore their relationship to fashion as an embodied art form and celebrate depictions of the dressed body throughout art history. Yeah, I'm going to say five people are going to do that last bit. Everyone else is going to go Art. Just means that you could really go with a very easy, avant garde, crazy over the top. I wondered it would be like the year was Camp and people were just dressing crazy outfits.
08:43
Speaker 1
Yeah.
08:43
Speaker 3
So Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Like Costume Institute, he was like, I do worry people might take the theme literally and come as a painting. Like he knows, he's like someone's total He actually said, he was like, I'm scared someone's gonna come as like that Campbells suit painting Katy Perry.
08:58
Speaker 1
I was gonna say Katy Perry. Well, I was like, let's not slam Katie Perry lesser.
09:02
Speaker 3
But the year she came as a burger, it was like widely reported that Anna Winter was like what the hell?
09:06
Speaker 1
Yeah? And Wint was like, when I made this the event of the year, that's not what I meant to.
09:10
Speaker 3
No, it's not meant to be a dress up thing like it is, but in a very different way.
09:14
Speaker 1
Yeah. But I found it.
09:15
Speaker 3
Really interesting because he's spoken at length about like the exhibition and they've split it into like thirteenth thematic body type, so there's like pregnant bodies, aging, disabled, variations on nudity, and they said, like the exhibition has two hundred sculptures and artworks alongside two hundred garments and accessories, So it's about bodies that have been marginalized in fashion and ones that haven't been valorized in either fashion or Western culture. And I found it really interesting because he was like a lot of the development's fashion has made over the last few years have really eroded, and I don't feel like we're seeing as much diversity on the runway as we were seeing. So it's a very interesting time with a lot of the discoss that we are having about famous people's bodies and bodies on runways and men magazines and in movies at this time for this exhibit. But I do think the theme goes over a lot of people's heads. Sometimes, I'm not going.
10:00
Speaker 2
To pay a lot of people and we'd already know we're just going to see it like a full sea of very very thin bodies at the met Gala, because it's a representation of who's in fashion and entertainment at the moment, and that's who's in fashion and.
10:12
Speaker 1
Entertainment at the moment.
10:13
Speaker 2
So I don't think there'll be any sort of body diversity. I feel like that conversation is dead and buried to the detriment of us as a society. And Andrew Bolton in his exhibit, yeah exactly. But I'm interessed to see what a lot of people wear. I'm interested about how Kim Kardashian is gonna vier because she got to a point where the first couple of years after the whole debacle, when she was pregnant and she will the flower rose gown and.
10:36
Speaker 1
Everyone always quite like that. It was quite nice too. This is me think he tell us of dress as well. I don't know anything.
10:41
Speaker 2
It's just that she was heavily pregnant and people just pretend that they like that, but they don't. And after that, she just went through many years of just wanting to look pretty because I think she was trying to be accepted. And then she got into an interesting place of the stunt dressing with the Marilyn Monroe look and the wet look, beaded gown like my waist defires human measurements, yeah, and the walking with her face covered, so her silhouette spoke to everything. So there was all that, and the last few years with like the pearl dress and even like the Garden one where she had the cardigan and that was her stunt and people just thought that her dress broke beforehand, when was just not what happened. And now she's in an interesting space whether she's either going to have to just decide she's not stunt dressing anymore and she's going to go down the path of just looking like pretty in chic, or she's going to lean further into stunt dressing. And I hope it's that one and that's what it means to be because she looks just beautiful every other night of the year. But I think she cares less about being beautiful now because she knows she's beautiful, yeah, and she cares more about getting a good headline.
11:36
Speaker 3
And it was like when she did the sort of water droplet dress like the gal yeah, and like that was the camp year, right, and everyone was like, this is in camp, this is ridiculous, But actually she was one of the ones who understood the dress codes the most, and when you looked into how the dress was made and like the skill set that had gone into it and like what it represented, she was actually one of the ones who got it right. And I think that's the thing about her stunt dressing is sometimes people see it and go like, oh, well, she didn't read the dress code, and it's like, actually, I think she's one of the.
12:02
Speaker 1
And she wants people to think like she trained and.
12:04
Speaker 3
I feel like she's copying Sarah Jessica Parker in that, like she sees her as her inspiration fashion wise, and she wants that for herself.
12:10
Speaker 1
She wants to be taken seriously. That's so interesting.
12:13
Speaker 2
Well we'll see, so make sure you drop back into this feed this afternoon fro omur Met Gala Special. We're gonna be combing through all the dresses, all the scandals, all the behind the scenes. You just know that carpet is going to be a lit with celebrity gossip, and.
12:26
Speaker 1
Stick around for that. But we just want to let you
12:28
Speaker 2
Know that we haven't forgotten you and a big, juicy, over the top episode is coming away very soon today