One thing about them Met Galas...

A night of after parties

Photo: Deonté Lee, BFA

“Don’t be late. I don’t pull stunts on Met Gala night,” is the text I receive from Terence Edgerson, otherwise known as the NY Social Bee, a friend who was once NYT infamous for party crashing who now throws his own parties. The Boom Boom Room, a night club at the top of the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District, is home to one of his parents which has secured us entry to Janelle Monae and Kaytranada’s Met Gala after party. And thank God, I’d already tried my hand at RSVPing to the event (no response) and hitting up my friend who works at Janelle’s company Wondaland (she said she’d see what she could do, then I never heard from her again). But Terence’s text tells us to meet at Le Bain promptly at 10PM.

I arrive early with one of my best friends Charlie, who works in tech but doing what I can never specifically remember, and we pop into the hotel of my friend, model and illustrator (I know, I hate her too!!!!) Monica Ahanonu. She’s having her Chanel look for the evening photographed as we enter and sip Patron while listening to Jessie Ware’s That! Feels Good! on loop. Closer to 10:45PM, Terence has finally arrived at Le Bain and we all meet downstairs where we’re whisked in and blow air kisses to Connie Fleming, an icon, a model, the final boss when you’re usually attempting to get through a chic door at a New York Party. 

Once we’re upstairs I immediately run into my friends, writer Rob LeDonne who is reporting on the event for the Observer, and Tim Fitzgerald who does PR for Coach. He immediately introduces me to Sasha Colby, winner of the recent season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and after I gush over how much I adore and show her a viral video of her dancing along to her single “Goddess” in a restaurant a couple days prior, we snap a couple photos and I shake down her manager for an e-mail so I can book Sasha on Keep It. Alex Newell stomps in shortly after and I greet them, while everyone with Alex is buzzing about the impending Tony noms (spoiler alert: Alex got a nom!). Over in the corner I see Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff arriving and through Jonathan and I share a mutual friend and have met several times, I decide it’s not worth the effort to make my way through the crowd.

I make a quick trip to the bathroom where I run into another friend, writer Kimberly Drew, and Jordan Firstman, and a woman who looks suspiciously like she works at Waystar Royco. “You know, you look like that girl from Succession,” I say, to which she responds, “I am!” It’s Juliana Canfield, who plays Jess. The woman who puts up with Kendall Roy on a weekly basis. In need of champagne or a moscow mule or both, I hurry back to the bar where Jenna Ortega is being photographed as she enters. I shout, “Jenna Ortega you will always be famous!” and then run into Ashley Park, who I’ve never met personally, but a close friend Grant works on Emily in Paris and I worked on another Darren Star show recently, so I say a quick hello to her and we send Grant a selfie.

Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

Later on by the DJ booth, I wave to Janelle and she waves back and I tell myself it’s because she remembers me being at a party she threw at her house two summers ago (thank you for taking me, Ziwe!) but I absolutely know that she does not. On the dance floor I spot Ava Max dipping through the crowd with Christian Siriano. Terence returns to the dance floor as Kaytranada starts getting into a groove, showing me a photo he took with Keke Palmer, who I’ve somehow missed.

It’s getting late and we’re worried about getting into the after party at the Box before the celebs rush it, so we decide to take off. As we exit, I run into Chloe Fineman being devoured by the cameras, they absolutely take 9000 photos of her. Ariana DeBose slips in behind her and says, “good to see you!” like she remembers being on Keep It but I am sure she does not! At the elevator, we’re met with Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas and I internally scream as they move past us.

Before the Box, we make a detour for Virgo, where Dua Lipa’s after party. Someone in my group knows the door person and the photographer is Deonté Lee, who does photos for BFA and also photographed my birthday party last year. He snaps a quick phot of me and then we hurry in to find my friend Cooper Cheatham, a brand manager at Archer Roose (an excellent new canned wine, and that’s not an ad, I like it), who introduces me to Manu Rios and it’s at that point in the night I died. 

At some point I come to and am still alive and realize I’ve been talking Manu’s ear off about Pedro Almodóvar. I excuse myself and let him continue with his night. Everyone is talking about how the NYPD shut down the party at the Box (maybe they wouldn’t let Eric Adams in) and how allegedly Rihanna is on her way to the party, but we opt to head over to The Nines because my friend, DJ Ty Sunderland, has just sent me this text: “Rita Ora just walked in.” I hightail it over to The Nines in the hopes of finally meeting my queen (funny story, she arrived at the aforementioned Janelle house party two summers ago, minutes after I left to attend a friend’s birthday. A friend who I don’t even talk to anymore so it wasn’t even worth it!). But when I get there, all of the celebrities are gone and the bar is closing.

We dip back over to Dua’s party, where Deonté retakes my photo because the earlier one didn’t come out right. There’s a throng of people waiting by the door and that’s when we see Rihanna and A$AP strutting into the club where they are whisked into a private room with Dua Lipa. At that point, I swipe a bottle of Grey Goose from an empty table and head home and pop a xanax.