Met Gala’s strict rules include no selfies and bizarre ban on parsley and onions-Rishma Dosani-Entertainment – Metro

The first Monday in May means the Met Gala is officially here (Picture: Getty)

It’s the first Monday in May which means the most glamorous night in fashion is officially upon us – with the final preparations going into this evening’s Met Gala as we type.

In just a few hours, some of the biggest names will be gracing the red carpet at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, decked out in their finest – Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Lopez and Bad Bunny are serving as the co-chairs for the bash.

All eyes will be on the the guest list and whether they fit this year’s theme of the Garden of Time, in celebration of the Costume Institute’s new exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.

However, it turns out that guests have to follow some strict rules once they finally get up those famous steps, including what they eat for dinner and even who they sit next to.

No bad breath or parsley

In fact, Vogue editor Anna Wintour has reportedly banned ingredients including parsley, onions and garlic from the menu, to ensure everything is as perfect as possible.

Anna Wintour goes above and beyond to make sure the event is perfect (Picture: GC Images)

Zendaya is among the co-chairs for this year’s bash (Picture: Getty)

According to the New York Post, a former magazine employee spilled that parsley got the chop from the menu ‘because you don’t want that stuck in your teeth’.

Anything causing bad breath from party-goers is also struck off, as well as messy appetizers that can ‘fall easily on your gown’.

Director Andrew Rossi was given unprecedented access into Anna’s planning efforts for the 2016 documentary, the First Monday In May, where viewers could see how much preparation went into the food options.

She went above and beyond to make sure everything looked as good as it tasted, with the filmmaker conceding that ‘the level of detail is shocking’.

Seating plan secrets

Unsurprisingly, a lot of thought also goes into the seating plan for the dinner, with guidelines over who sits at what table.

Married couples aren’t allowed to sit together inside… (Picture: Getty)

Justin Bieber and wife Hailey Bieber have been regular attendees (Picture: Getty)

There is some intense ‘power brokering’ behind the scenes for months before the red carpet is even rolled, with couples reportedly banned from sitting together.

Sylvana Ward Durrett, director of special projects at Vogue, shared in the 2016 documentary via the Post: ‘A lot of thought goes into who sits next to who, if they sat together last year, if they’ve sat next to each other at other events, so much goes into it, it’s shocking.

‘The whole point of these things is to meet new people, and to be interested in what others are doing. What’s the point if you come here to hang out with your husband?’

Rihanna is always on theme (Picture: Getty)

Katy Perry has stolen the show in previous years (Picture: FilmMagic)

Staff also ‘subtly monitor’ the scene to ensure everyone actually speaks to each other, instead of being sat on their phones for the entire evening.

‘Anna is an old-school traditionalist. She likes a dinner party where people are actually speaking to each other,’ Sylvana added. ‘We aren’t sitting over people’s shoulders, but if it’s an obvious thing, we might gently remind them.’

No selfies

Speaking of phones, if you manage to get into the party, don’t even think about snapping pictures while in the venue.

Anna issued a ban on selfies and photography in 2015, with the only pictures shared from inside coming from official agencies.

Could you imagine the Met Gala without a star-studded bathroom selfie (Picture: Instagram)

Of course, this is one rule that is broken every year without fail, as we have seen countless famous faces squeezing in for a mirror selfie in the toilets.

We wonder who will be gracing those loos this evening…

No children

While the guest list is never revealed ahead of time – apart from Anna herself, and those co-chairing – we do know that youngsters are not invited.

In 2018, it was officially enforced that those under the age of 18 were not able to attend, meaning we have a few more years to go until North West is able to rule the carpet.

We won’t be seeing North West on the carpet for a while… (Picture: Mega)

Although she did accompany mom Kim Kardashian to the venue last year, she then went straight back to watch the proceedings from the comfort of her sofa, surrounded by snacks. 

The dream evening, basically.

No smoking

The last rule is probably the most obvious but smoking is definitely not allowed at the event.

Lighting up indoors has been banned in New York City since 2003 but a string of celebs – including Bella Hadid and Dakota Johnson – were pictured smoking in the bathrooms in 2017, leading to a huge crackdown the following year.

Department of Health Commissioner Dr Mary T Bassett later issued an open letter to the Met, explaining: ‘This spectacular event awes us all. We were dismayed to read reports that some celebrities chose smoking as their fashion accessory and flagrantly violated New York City’s smoking laws…

‘You admire and emulate the designers, models, actors, and other celebrities who attend the Met Gala. We thus are concerned about how images of these celebrities smoking — which were widely shared around the world via social media — will affect youth smoking rates.’

Museum bosses responded by vowing that they would ‘take steps to ensure this does not happen again’.

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