Monday<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the Met Gala<\/a> in New York on Monday and as photos stream out from the red carpet, the people I find myself thinking about most are three prominent holdouts. The annual ball, which raises money for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum, has always summoned a strong turnout from the have-your-cake-and-eat-it community, notably Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a few years ago in her \u201ctax-the-rich\u201d dress. This year, that role was assumed by the actor Sarah Paulson, who wore a dollar bill covering her eyes in apparent reference to the \u201cblindness\u201d of the 1%, a protest she undertook while nobly taking one for the team by refusing to sit out the $100,000-a-head event.<\/p>\n Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, declined<\/a> his invitation, unlike many mayors before him (Bill De Blasio \u2013 thrilled to be there; Eric Adams \u2013 couldn\u2019t beetle up that red carpet fast enough). On the night, while the Kardashians and other influencers enjoyed the spotlight, Mamdani posted on the mayor\u2019s official social media feed to pay tribute to \u201cthe garment, retail, and warehouse workers who keep the industry running\u201d. The actor Zendaya also declined to attend, for work reasons she said. And there was criticism of the gala from the actor Taraji P Henson, who posted<\/a>: \u201cI am so confused by some ppl that are going. I am just like WTF ARE WE DOING?\u201d<\/p>\n What indeed. This year\u2019s guests, most of whom can be found at other times expatiating at length about one admirable cause or another, had no particular problem showing up to an event sponsored for the first time this year by Jeff Bezos. Per the gala\u2019s mission, art must be celebrated \u2013 even as it provides a laundering service for billionaire supporters of the unhinged American president, who, among other things, has slashed funding to the National Endowment for the Arts. Still, the costumes were lovely.<\/p>\n Tuesday<\/p>\n You may recall President Obama breaking into Amazing Grace at a church in Charleston in 2015; an amazing political and human moment. By way of a follow-up and in a moment of bathos quite apt for the times, here\u2019s Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, going the full Charles Aznavour<\/a> this week by singing La Boheme at a state dinner in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, while Nikol Pashinyan, the Armenian prime minister, accompanies him on drums.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a sucker for this kind of political theatre \u2013 up to and including, I\u2019m ashamed to say, Donald Trump at the wheel<\/a> of that big truck in 2017 and Tony Blair playing football. However staged these photo ops, they entail a small amount of vulnerability on the part of the politician and I\u2019m always clenched for the gesture to fall flat. (The exception to this sensitivity of mine is Boris Johnson, whom it\u2019s impossible to shame or embarrass and whose enthusiasms \u2013 remember the carry on<\/a> about buses? \u2013 seem entirely made up).<\/p>\n Anyway, in Armenia this week, after the Aznavour classic, Macron performed a number by Yves Montan. What the French president \u2013 whose poll ratings in France make him even more unpopular than Keir Starmer in Britain \u2013 lacked in singing ability he made up for in sheepish grins and a facial expression beseeching us to give him a break, he\u2019s really trying.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m very popular with young people, they find me fascinating and inspiring.\u2019 Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin\/APWednesday<\/p>\n