Highlights
- Taylor Swift closed the 2026 Academy Museum Gala with a four-song set, including the live debut of The Fate of Ophelia.
- Charlize Theron, Colman Domingo and John Carpenter took home awards as the night raised more than $14 million in L.A.
- Amanda Seyfried dodged questions on the carpet, saying interviews are hard right now and pivoting to emus and Halloween.
Taylor Swift didn’t just attend the 2026 Academy Museum Gala. She turned Hollywood’s priciest fundraiser into her own private concert, and a room stuffed with A-listers sang along.
The sixth annual bash on Saturday night raised more than $14 million, with Swift performing. That tops last year’s $12 million-plus haul, so the Academy got its money’s worth.
Conan O’Brien, her Toy Story 5 castmate, handled the intro and set the bar impossibly high. He called her “John, Paul, George and Ringo all in one.”
Swift delivered a four-song set: “Blank Space,” the live debut of “The Fate of Ophelia,” her Toy Story 5 track “I Knew It, I Knew You” and “Love Story.”
Embed from Getty ImagesSubtle, she is not. That Toy Story single could land Swift her first Oscar nomination, and the gala is a known pit stop for Oscar hopefuls.
Museum boss Amy Homma was already sold, calling Swift “an extraordinary talent whose work resonates around the world.”
Even the arrival broke the rules. Swift skipped the biggest-name-arrives-last playbook, hitting the carpet midway and catching up with Dakota and Elle Fanning in the cocktail area.
Her look was a Cinderella-inspired Dior gown. Inside, Connor Storrie and Rosé were caught dancing to “Blank Space.”
Oh, right. There were also honorees.
Sigourney Weaver handed Charlize Theron the Icon Award, and the Oscar winner sounded genuinely stunned. “I’m always a little bit like, is it a dream? Is it real?” she said.
Theron, in sheer black Tom Ford, also offered career advice to future icons: start in horror. Her screen debut was 1995’s Children of the Corn 3: Urban Harvest, so she’d know.
Embed from Getty ImagesHorror was the night’s whole mood. Jamie Lee Curtis, who got her start in Halloween, introduced Robert Rodriguez to present John Carpenter with the Luminary Award, his first official honor from the Academy.
After dinner, Judd Apatow introduced Tom Ford, who gave Colman Domingo the Vantage Award.
Embed from Getty ImagesThen Amanda Seyfried won the red carpet by saying absolutely nothing. She told The Hollywood Reporter life is “interesting” right now.
Interviews are hard at the moment, she added, “for a good reason.” She refused to say what that reason is.
Embed from Getty ImagesInstead, she went full guru. “I think everything that’s happening is meant to happen,” Seyfried said.
Want to actually chat with her? Stick to emus, Halloween, apple pie, olives and good hard ciders. Her words, not ours.
The rest of the guest list read like a casting director’s fever dream, with nearly 200 celebrities on the carpet. Kim Kardashian, Sabrina Carpenter, Ana de Armas, Andrew Garfield, Demi Moore and A$AP Rocky all showed up.
Kendall Jenner wore custom Valentino. Boyfriend Jacob Elordi walked the carpet separately, because of course he did.
Embed from Getty ImagesTHR noted the night lived up to its nickname as the “Met Gala of the West Coast.”
The real difference? At the Met, nobody gets a Taylor Swift encore.
