Picture of Selena Gomez at Met Gala goes viral — and she wasn’t even there

Selena Gomez looked resplendent on the Met Gala carpet in a sheer dress with blue pearls. There was just one problem.

A fake photo of Selena Gomez at the 2023 Met Gala went viral on the internet — and became the most-liked photo on Twitter.

The photo shows Gomez, 30, wearing a sheer one-shoulder dress with blue pearls, but she didn’t even attend the event this year, the New York Post reports.

As of Tuesday morning, US time, the Twitter post of the doctored photo has gained 13.8 million views, 25,800 retweets and 300,100 likes — and keeps gaining traction.

SELENA GOMEZ DID A SURPRISE APPEARANCE AT THE #MetGala WTF pic.twitter.com/qnGxuUKsRK

— 𝐊𝐄𝐕 (@kevormez) May 2, 2023

It appears that the photoshopped picture has Gomez’s face on Lily James’ 2022 Met Gala look by Versace, with the outfit edited to a different shade of blue.

Aside from the fact that the Look At Me Now singer didn’t attend the Met Gala, there are a few glaring inconsistencies in the photo that were immediately noticeable to fans.

Genuine red carpet image of Selena Gomez at the 2022 AFI Fest in Hollywood, California. Picture: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

Most notably, the red carpet Gomez is photoshopped onto is not the Colgate-toothpaste-looking one from this year. Some colours were also poorly blended, making it clear it was a Photoshop job.

This picture of actor Jared Leto at the 2023 Met Gala is very much not fake. Picture: Angela Weiss / AFP

It’s unclear why Gomez didn’t attend the Met Gala this year — an event she hasn’t attended since 2018 — but she has a lot going on at the moment.

The actor just wrapped up filming Season three of Only Murders in the Building and she was recently spotted with Zayn Malik, 30, sparking dating rumours.

This story appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.