Today is the Met Gala, the annual high fashion event that is still apparently a thing. After cancelling last year’s festivities on account of the pandemic, this year’s event will require attendees to be fully vaccinated and to wear a mask.
The new rules have a number of rumors circulating about which A-listers remain unvaccinated. Nicki Minaj, whose Met Gala attire is usually an event unto itself, tweeted this afternoon that she would not get vaccinated for the event. “If I get vaccinated it won’t [be] for the Met. It’ll be once I feel I’ve done enough research. I’m working on that now,” she wrote. “In the meantime my loves, be safe.”
They want you to get vaccinated for the Met. if I get vaccinated it won’t for the Met. It’ll be once I feel I’ve done enough research. I’m working on that now. In the meantime my loves, be safe. Wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face. Not that loose one 🙏♥️
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021
Earlier this year, Minaj re-released her debut mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty, featuring three new singles and a verse alluding to the ongoing legal battle between Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, and a woman he was convicted of sexually assaulting in 1995. The singer and her husband have fielded allegations of harassing the victim in an attempt to get her to recant her statement. Last week, Petty pleaded guilty to failing to register as a sex offender.
Minaj was conspicuously absent from the MTV VMAs this weekend, causing many fans to wonder if the legal trouble she and her husband have faced was the cause. In the replies to her tweet about the Met Gala, she appears to suggest that she was unable to attend the VMAs after catching Covid-19 on a video shoot. She also alleges that Drake, whose new album she appears on, caught a breakthrough infection of the virus despite being vaccinated. (A representative for Drake did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.) She then shared a number of other anecdotal theories about the effects of the vaccine.
Love u babe. I was prepping for vmas then i shot a video & guess who got COVID? Do u know what it is not to be able to kiss or hold your tiny baby for over a week? A baby who is only used to his mama? “get vaccinated” Drake had just told me he got covid w|THE VACCINE tho so chile https://t.co/wInXoJcHBn
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021
My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021
Of course, there is an abundance of research on the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine. In any case, there will be one less celebrity on the coveted Met steps this evening.
From Rolling Stone US