The cantankerous Cannes security guard who had a red carpet run in with Kelly Rowland is in the news again. This time, her beef was with a Dominican actress after a video of their confrontation went viral.
Massiel Taveras arrived at the premiere of the film The Count of Monte Cristo at the Cannes Film Festival in France wearing a gown with a long white train displaying an image of Jesus Christ. But as Tavares tried to fix her train so cameras could get a better view of the picture, the usher blocks her and attempts to hurry a visibly upset Taveras up the stairs.
The incident comes just days after singer/actress Kelly Rowland had an altercation with the same usher on the red carpet at the May 21 premiere of the film Marcello Mio after she was rushed up the stairs during arrivals.
According to a lip-reading expert, Rowland told the usher, “Don’t talk to me like that. Don’t talk to me like that. You’re not my mother. I told you not to talk to me like that.”
When asked about the incident, Rowland told the Associated Press that she was just standing her ground, subtly pointing out that white women on the same red carpet did not receive the same treatment.
“The woman knows what happened, I know what happened. I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries and that is it,” she said. “There were other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me and they didn’t get scolded or pushed off or told to get off. And I stood my ground, and she felt like she had to stand hers.”
In a May 27 Instagram post, Taveras wrote that she was impressed with how Rowland handled herself in a similar situation, adding that women of color deserve better treatment.
“Let’s show some love and respect to the extraordinary @kellyrowland, a pure soul, a talented, classy, educated woman of color that represents with respect all of US,” she captioned her post in part.