Massiel Taveras has a suggestion for the 77th Annual Cannes Film Festival security guard who is making headlines after ushering various celebs on the event’s red carpet last month.
“If you see the video, she’s, like, covering her face. She should go to church or read the Bible,” the Dominican actress and model, 39, told TMZ on Tuesday, June 4.
Taveras recalled “fighting so hard” against the female security and other event staff “just to make them understand that it was just about taking one photo, one picture with my amazing dress, you know, to give credit to my designer.”
Footage of Taveras arguing with the female security guard at the May 22 event went viral. In the clip, Taveras was being rushed up the red carpet stairs as she attempted to show off her Giannina Azar dress, which featured a 15-foot-long train with a portrait of Jesus on it. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Taveras shoved the female security guard after she placed her arm on Taveras’ shoulder.
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“[She] pushed me in a way that I’m like, ‘Oh no, wait a minute. That’s not right. Leave me alone,’” Taveras told TMZ. “And then, at the door, obviously, they said, ‘Oh, you’re not coming in.’ I said, ‘Why? This is Jesus Christ’s face? I have an invitation for one year in advance.’”
Taveras went on to allege that a separate security guard informed her that she could not go through that entrance because of her dress. “He said to me, ‘You’re not coming in and this is not our partner,’” she claimed. “So, Jesus is not your partner? OK, who are you partnered with?”
Taveras alleged that she was not allowed to enter through the “main room” and was instead directed to enter through a balcony entrance. “I’m like, ‘OK, fine. I’ll go to the balcony,’” she told the outlet. “Thank God the balcony has the longest stairs so I can have the photo there.”
The “weird” incident is something Taveras said she’s never experienced before. “I think people like the fact that I did that because it shows, like, OK, there’s boundaries in life,” she stated. “And as Kelly [Rowland] did, I stood my ground. We did the same.”
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Us Weekly has reached out to the Cannes Film Festival for comment.
Taveras wasn’t the only one who experienced a red carpet incident with security officials,While being led up the stairs at the May 21 premiere of the French-Italian film Marcello Mio, Rowland, 43, pointed her finger at the same female security after she placed a hand behind Rowland’s back.
“The woman knows what happened, I know what happened,” Rowland told AP Entertainment on May 23. “I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries, and that’s is it.”
The singer went on to note that there were other women at the festival who “did not quite look like me” that “didn’t get scolded or pushed off or told to get off,” adding, “I stood my ground, and she felt like she had to stand hers.”
Model Sawa Pontyjska filed a lawsuit against the film festival on May 30 after experiencing her own unpleasant encounter with the female security guard. “I was trying to escape from this lock. I went down and I started to run away on the stairs because it was the way back [out],” she told the BBC. “She was trying to push me in[side], so nobody can see what she’s doing with me. Then she kicked me out through the back door.”
