No. Neither Katy Perry nor Rihanna attended the 2024 Met Gala. Images shared online as if they showed the singers on the red carpet were not authentic event photos: PolitiFact identified the Perry images as AI-generated and found that the Rihanna image did not show her at the gala.
What happened with the viral Met Gala images?
On May 6, 2024, images circulated online depicting Perry in elaborate floral gowns and Rihanna in a cream-colored gown with a dramatic floral train. They were presented as real appearances at the gala, but both singers were absent. Contemporary coverage described the images as AI-generated; the available reporting did not establish who made them or which AI tool or workflow was used.
Perry addressed the images herself on Instagram. She wrote, “Couldn’t make it to the MET, had to work.” Her post also showed a text from her mother, who had mistaken one of the images for a real appearance. Perry replied, “lol mom the AI got you too, BEWARE!” PolitiFact’s May 7, 2024 fact-check and the Associated Press’s May 7 coverage reported the post and the images.
How do the Katy Perry and Rihanna cases differ?
| Case | Image and verification | What reporting established |
|---|---|---|
| Katy Perry | The images showed Perry in ornate floral looks. PolitiFact noted that the 2024 carpet was cream with moss-green accents, while the carpet in a Perry image looked closer to the 2018 event carpet. | PolitiFact concluded the images were AI-generated. Perry’s own post said she could not attend because she had work. |
| Rihanna | The image showed a cream-colored gown with a dramatic floral train. PolitiFact found that the carpet did not match the 2024 setting and noted that flowers along the real carpet were white rather than the color shown in the image. | PolitiFact found the image did not show Rihanna at the gala and noted clues of AI generation. Rihanna was absent; the AP reported that Vogue representatives said she would not attend before the carpet closed. |
Sources: PolitiFact’s Perry fact-check, May 7, 2024; PolitiFact’s Rihanna fact-check, May 8, 2024; Associated Press, May 7, 2024.
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Why the images looked convincing—and what details gave them away
A convincing red-carpet backdrop can make a fabricated image feel plausible, but it does not verify that the person was there. The AP observed that the event-like backdrops suggested the generating system may have been trained on images of past events, while noting that the images’ origins were difficult to pin down.
In these cases, the carpet and floral details offered useful comparisons with contemporaneous event images. Distorted faces or hands among background photographers were additional warning signs. Such visual anomalies can prompt closer scrutiny, but the stronger check is whether reliable event coverage and attendance information corroborate the appearance.
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Virginia Tech communication professor Cayce Myers told the AP, “It used to be that seeing is believing, and now seeing is not believing,” referring to the Perry image.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How widely did the Perry images spread?
Contemporaneous outlets reported large engagement counts for a viral Perry image, but those snapshots are not totals of unique people reached and do not show how many viewers believed the image.
Rank #3
- TechCrunch, May 6, 2024, reported more than 10 million views and over 300,000 likes for the first viral Perry image.
- TIME, May 7, 2024, reported more than 288,000 likes and more than 9 million views in three hours for one Perry image.
The outlets’ figures reflect different reports and observation times, so they should not be combined into a single reach estimate.
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