Anna Wintour is facing embarrassing questions about her multi-million dollar deal with TikTok to sponsor the Met Gala, Page Six has learned.
The Vogue editor-in-chief will be joined by TikTok CEO Shou Chew on the red carpet, just days after President Biden signed a bill into law to either ban the Chinese social media platform or force its sale.
The lavish ball will be hosted on May 6 by Wintour along with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny and Chris Hemsworth.
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has spent millions to sponsor the event in a deal which TikTok sources stressed had been made long before the ban became law.
One Met Gala source told Page Six, “It’s true that the deal was cut way before this bill passed, but this is a PR disaster.
“What does Anna do? Does she un-invite TikTok a week before? She can’t. Anna is the total dictator of this event every year, let her talk her way out of this one!”
The source pointed out that many of the stars who attend the gala also have ties with music giant Universal.
Last month Universal banned its artists from the app in a standoff over licensing fees, and accused TikTok of “bullying” by wanting to pay a “fraction” of the rate other platforms do for its music.
Notably, Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican singer and rapper — real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — is signed to Universal.
Rihanna, a Met Gala regular who is slated to attend, is also signed to Universal and had her music removed from TikTok.
The Met source added, “There will be a lot of musicians who were basically paid nothing by TikTok. Having TikTok as the sponsor is insulting.”
TikTok sources, however, said the company’s executives are negotiating with Universal and hopeful of a deal soon.
The Senate passed the bill Tuesday that gives ByteDance up to a year to sell TikTok, or have the app, which has 170 million American users, banned entirely. The House had already passed the bill, allowing Biden to sign it into law immediately.
It was driven by widespread fears among lawmakers that China could access Americans’ data or use the app for surveillance.
CEO Chew insisted they expect to win a legal challenge to block the legislation — although Reuters reported that the Chinese owners would rather close the app than sell it.
“Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere. We are confident and will keep fighting for your rights in the courts,” Chew said.
Tik Tok has long argued it is not a security threat and says its parent company is not controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Chew said in January that TiKTok is investing $2 billion in trust and safety and that US data is held in servers owned by Oracle.
Despite this, one longtime Met Gala attendee told Page Six it will “politicize the event to have the old guard being sponsored by new media that the government just banned.”
The Met Gala raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which was renamed the Anna Wintour Costume Center in 2014.
Wintour, 74, is a high-profile Democratic supporter and has held a string of political fundraisers at her Greenwich Village townhouse.
A single ticket to the gala costs at least $50,000, while an entire table for 10 starts at $300,000. This year’s theme is “The Garden of Time,” inspired by the British novelist J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same title.
“There is nothing they can do about the TikTok affiliation now,” one attendee said.
“They chose it because TikTok wrote a check — and there are not that many people who can write a seven figure check these days. It’s also integral to the fashion world.”
Sources within the Met and at Condé Nast strongly denied there was any disquiet at TikTok’s sponsorship. One Condé source called the company “very generous…great partners.”
The ban “has nothing to do with the charitable contribution that TikTok has made to the Met,” said the source.
A TikTok source said, “170 million Americans subscribe to TikTok and it’s at the forefront of the zeitgeist. Everyone is excited for the Met.”
Reps for Vogue, The Met and Wintour were unavailable for comment.
The Met Gala source critical of Wintour suggested embarrassment over TikTok would only prove temporary and said, “She’s the greatest survivor in the history of this world, there’s nobody like her!”
