Christina Ricci’s One-Word Shade at Katy Perry’s Met Gala

Christina Ricci said everything she needed to say in one word.

The Addams Family actress dropped a pointed “Yikes” in the comments of a Variety Instagram post featuring Katy Perry and Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie at the 2026 Met Gala — and the internet immediately took notice. The post showed Perry in her now-viral Stella McCartney gown and mirrored metallic face mask, with Storrie, 26, playfully covering his own face with one hand to match her look. Two additional individual portraits of the stars in their full looks rounded out the carousel.

Ricci’s comment was short. It didn’t need to be anything else.

https://www.instagram.com/p/variety_met_gala_perry_storrie

Fans flooded the replies in agreement. “Came here just to like the comment,” one person wrote. Another simply added, “you said it, girl!” Others were more forgiving of Perry’s eccentric look — one commenter wrote “Okay Katy, i kinda like it 🤍” — while someone else joked about Storrie getting to ask Perry if she’d “ever felt like a plastic bag drifting through the wind,” a nod to her hit “Firework.”

The timing of Ricci’s comment is hard to ignore. She and Ruby Rose co-starred in the 2013 Australian film Around the Block, and Rose is currently at the center of a serious and ongoing allegation against Perry. Whether Ricci’s “Yikes” was a fashion critique, a statement of solidarity, or both — she’s not saying. Reps for Ricci did not return requests for comment.

The Ruby Rose Allegations, and Where Things Stand

Rose, 40, publicly accused Perry of sexual assault last month in a Threads post responding to a Complex Music update about Perry’s reaction to Justin Bieber’s Coachella performance. “Katy Perry sexually assaulted me at Spice Market nightclub in Melbourne,” Rose wrote. “Who gives a s–t what she thinks.”

In a follow-up post, Rose said it had taken her “almost two decades” to come forward. “Though I am so grateful to have made it long enough to find my voice, it just shows how much of an impact trauma and sexual assault takes. Thank you for seeing me,” she wrote. Rose has since said she’s filed a police report and finalized statements with authorities, adding that she is “no longer able to comment, repost, or talk publicly” about the cases or the individuals involved.

Victoria Police confirmed to multiple outlets that detectives from the Melbourne Sexual Offenses and Child Abuse Investigation Team are actively investigating a “historical sexual assault that occurred in Melbourne in 2010” at a licensed premises in the city’s Central Business District. Crucially, as Jacqueline Harris, a rep for Victoria’s Office of Public Prosecution, confirmed to TMZ: “There is no statute of limitations on prosecuting indictable (serious) crimes in Victoria.”

Perry has not been charged. Her rep issued a firm denial, calling Rose’s allegations “not only categorically false, they are dangerous reckless lies,” and pointing to what they described as Rose’s “well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named.”

The Mask, the Meaning, and the Moment

Perry’s Met Gala appearance — her first major public outing since the allegations broke — was impossible to miss and impossible to interpret simply. She arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a custom ivory Stella McCartney gown cut from Italian deadstock duchess satin, a burned satin train (reportedly designed as a nod to her upcoming single “Watch It Burn”), and a metallic mirror headpiece custom-designed by Miodrag Guberinic. The mask, according to a press release, was “designed to be a literal and symbolic reflection that invites the observer to consider that their perception of others can mirror their own internal world, and conversely mask truth.”

She skipped red carpet interviews entirely.

The look drew immediate comparisons online — “fencing astronaut” was a popular one, nodding to Perry’s Blue Origin space flight last year. One fan wrote “this eve from wall-e serve,” another said “I need this helmet for when my social battery runs out,” and a more pointed commenter simply wrote “im irritated she SHOULDVE STAYED HOME WTF IS THIS?”

There was also a detail that sent fans into a separate spiral entirely: Perry’s opera-length gloves appeared to have six fingers — a widely recognized hallmark of AI-generated imagery. Given that Perry was at the center of viral fake AI photos purporting to show her at the Met Gala in both 2024 and 2025, many fans read the extra finger as a deliberate, knowing joke. Perry appeared to lean into the conversation with a playful post after the gala, and the Magician tarot card she carried as an accessory only added to the air of intentional symbolism.

She did eventually lift the mask on the carpet, revealing her face to photographers.

Justin Trudeau Is Sticking by Her — For Now

Behind the spectacle, sources close to Perry say the situation is taking a real toll. An insider described things as “horribly painful” for the pop star, who is reportedly anxious about how the investigation could affect her relationship with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Justin is being 100 percent supportive, but it’s still a horribly painful situation,” the insider said. “Katy can’t help but worry about how it could impact things with him. He has his own image to protect.”

A separate Canadian society source previously told Page Six that the allegations represent “the first challenge they’ve faced since they’ve been together,” describing Trudeau — long known as a vocal advocate for gender equality and women’s rights — as being in an “awkward situation.” The source noted that his progressive public identity makes the timing especially complicated: “This could put a little bit of a dent into their coupledom.”

The insider’s final word on Perry’s mindset: “Katy is confident that she will be cleared — but it’s still a nightmare.”

Meanwhile, Perry is pressing forward with what’s shaping up to be a major musical comeback — a summer tour, her eighth studio album tentatively titled Scorpion Drama, and the upcoming single “Watch It Burn.” Whether the world is ready to receive it the way she’s hoping is, right now, very much an open question.