Influencer Haleyy Baylee Criticized For 'Let Them Eat Cake' Met Gala Video - Forbes

Topline

Model and influencer Haley “Baylee” Kalil has apologized after receiving backlash for posting a video of herself shortly after the Met Gala lip syncing to the infamous alleged Marie Antoinette quote “let them eat cake,” leading users to block her and other celebrities in an attempt to reduce the amount of money they earn on social platforms—though she says she didn’t attend the gala itself.

Key Facts

Kalil’s TikTok video—which now has over 21.6 million views and 3.6 million likes—has been shared and stitched by hundreds of users, who have criticized Kalil for posting the video of her wearing a lavish gown near the pricy and star-studded Met Gala while pro-Palestinian protestors were outside.

Another user posted a video—with over four million views—saying Kalil’s video might’ve “unlocked the rage of millions of people.”

It’s widely believed Antoinette, the seemingly disliked queen of France, said “let them eat cake” during the French Revolution to disparage the starving poor, though the quote has been questioned by some historians, and she was later guillotined for crimes against the state.

Kalil posted a TikTok video Thursday clarifying she wasn’t invited to the Met Gala and was only a pre-Met Gala host for E! News, interviewing celebrities and creating content outside of a designated hotel.

Kalil also said a designer friend, whom she’s worked with before, made her dress for free.She went on to apologize for using the audio—which is from the 2006 “Marie Antoinette” film—adding she didn’t choose it to highlight elitism since she “wasn’t elite enough to even be invited to the Met Gala,” and was “uneducated” on what was happening in Gaza.

But her video was met with thousands of comments and videos criticizing her apology, with some users saying they’re “watching from district 12,” a nod to the dystopian film “The Hunger Games,” where the elite watched poor teenagers fight to their death in a televised event.

Forbes has reached out to Kalil for comment.

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Tangent

Kalil is a model and influencer who’s appeared in publications like Sports Illustrated, where she was one of two winners for the magazine’s 2018 Swin Search open call. The Streamy-nominated influencer has over 10 million followers on TikTok and five million Instagram followers.

Key Background

Kalil has become the center of a new online movement called the “celebrity blockout,” or the “digital guillotine.” Seemingly started by TikTok user Blockout2024, the movement calls on people to block celebrities—many who attended this year’s Met Gala—on social media, so they earn less money from ads. Celebrities and influencers can earn money by monetizing posts, which are shown as ads on social platforms like Instagram. They earn more money the more engagement—such as comments or likes—their ads receive, so blocking a celebrity means not seeing their posts, reducing their engagement and ad revenue. Many users have made videos of their daily or weekly celebrity block lists, which consists of three or more people, while others just focus on one celebrity. Kalil has made her way on to several lists, including one user’s list, which has been viewed almost five million times, where she slammed Kalil for posting her “let them eat cake video,” while doing “nothing with your 10 million follower platform as people are starving and dying.” Other notable celebrities who’ve made it on people’s block lists include Drake, Taylor Swift and Beyonce, North West, Kim Kardashian and all the Kardashians and Jenners.

What We Don’t Know

Whether the “blockout” movement will affect influencers’ ad revenue.

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