General Hospital Star Denise Alexander Dies at 85
General Hospital’s Denise Alexander, who played Dr. Lesley Webber for decades, has died at age 85 following a celebrated soap career
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The 2025 Met Gala Has Officially Found Its Big Controversy. It Gets Dumber by the Hour.
It involves a White Lotus star, Pharrell, panties, and … Rosa Parks?!
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Every first Monday in May, celebrities walk the Met Gala carpet in haute couture while we, the peanut gallery online and at home, judge to see who wore what best and who will go down in gala infamy. This year, the odds for infamy seemed much higher than usual due to the dress code, “Tailored for You,” which took inspiration from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s accompanying exhibition exploring Black dandyism, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. Plenty of Met-heads were excited about the theme—the Met Gala’s very first explicitly Black one—but the announcement also set off some alarm bells. Even though Black fashion is all the rage these days and many Black designers have become household names, the industry still occasionally struggles to embrace various cultures in an appropriate way.
So everyone’s eyes were peeled for any non-Black attendees and designers who would interpret the theme horribly wrong, and on Monday night, social media was quick to declare a winner: White Lotus actress and K-pop star Lisa, from the group Blackpink. But the story keeps becoming more complicated and has dragged in everyone from Pharrell to … Rosa Parks? Let’s break it down.
Why are people mad at Lisa?
Lisa showed up to her first Met Gala in a sparkling pantsless head-to-toe look from Louis Vuitton, a getup that would have been just fine—Lisa’s ensemble was far from the only pantsless outfit to come from Pharrell’s atelier—if it hadn’t been for the details. Eagle-eyed fans on the internet zoomed in and noticed what seemed to be a familiar face, one that looked a lot like civil-rights activist Rosa Parks, embellished onto the fabric that covered Lisa’s crotch. Now the internet is haranguing Lisa and music titan Pharrell for what it believes is a rather inappropriate use of the Black hero’s visage.
Wait, did you say Pharrell? As in “I produced the greatest track of all time, Kelis’ ‘Milkshake’ ” Pharrell?
The Neptunes’ Pharrell and longtime fashion aficionado Pharrell—yep, the very same! Pharrell was appointed as the brand’s new men’s creative director in 2023 and handled all of LV’s looks for the Met Gala—including for the women. For Lisa’s outfit, he collaborated with Black artist and painter Henry Taylor, who designed the faces embroidered onto Lisa’s jacket and bodysuit. It isn’t the first time Pharrell has incorporated Taylor’s portraits into his fashion; the musicmaker also embroidered miniatures of Taylor’s portraits onto various suits in his debut LV collection, which itself is not the first time Taylor has worked with the brand.
The irony was not lost on people that if that face were to really be Rosa Parks, it would have either slipped past (or been actively greenlit by) Pharrell, a prominent Black man in charge of the clothing.
OK, that would be very distasteful, but do we even know if it’s actually Parks? Or is it just an illustration that looks a lot like her and was placed in an unfortunate spot?
No, it’s not (and thank goodness). Initially, Louis Vuitton vaguely told the Cut that Taylor’s print showcases “portraits of figures who have been a part of the artist’s life,” leaving the question unanswered. Luckily, on Wednesday morning, a representative for Taylor told Vulture that “the figure featured” is not Parks but, instead, a neighbor of Taylor’s. The representative went on to explain that “the faces seen on this look, as well as on previous LV garments featuring Taylor’s artwork, are all drawn from his personal life—family members, friends, and neighbors,” adding, “None of the individuals depicted in any of the garments are Rosa Parks or other well-known figures from Black cultural history.”
Heather Schwedel Two White Lotus Stars Are Embroiled in Controversy. It Gets More Complicated by the Day.
That seems pretty definitive. Do you think criticism of Lisa will let up now that the air has been cleared?
Hopefully in this regard, though I also doubt it, considering that many online viewed this incident negatively in the context of recently unearthed videos that appear to showcase Lisa and other Blackpink members rapping the N-word while covering songs.
What?!
On March 30, someone claiming to be a former employee of YG Entertainment, a major Korean entertainment agency, began posting purported leaked footage involving K-pop idols from numerous companies. Included in this dump from the so-called YG leaker were clips, reportedly from before the group’s 2016 debut, that appear to show Blackpink members Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa covering songs as trainees in which they rap the slur. Though the videos seem to be from several years ago, they still upset many fans, who feel that an apology is owed. Still, as of this posting, neither Blackpink nor YG has apologized. For context, Kiss of Life—another group mired in allegations of racism due to the leaked content—has apologized to its fans.
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Where does this leave us?
It’s been a weird few months for K-pop. The genre is often embroiled in conversations about Black cultural appropriation, but things may have come to a head this spring with three events: Black fans writing about leaving the fandom, an unnecessary fan war that led to some truly vitriolic racist online hate, and the YG leaker calling attention to the genre’s apparent disregard for racial sensitivity. Still, Lisa’s Met debut shouldn’t be another thing to add to that pile (even if I do still think it’s also kinda weird to have someone’s neighbor’s face plastered over your nether regions). With all this sorted, hopefully we can move on from full-on allegations of hate crimes and get back to discussing good old crimes against fashion.
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