Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
Washington Square Park in New York City was home to a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest and Chalamet himself even showed up to take part. However, what started off as fun ended with four people being arrested. No, he did not enter the contest of who looked the most like him, but he had a great time being there.
According to The New York Times, the event was organized by YouTuber Anthony Po who has 1.8 million subscribers and around 10,000 people showed up to the contest. The prize was only $50 but the NYPD busted up the group at 1pm. An entrant, Reed Putman said in an interview with The New York Times that an officer yelled in his face that he needed to leave the park and he moved away from the officer. Not long after that he saw another contestant get physically dragged away in handcuffs.
The NYPD released their own statement about the matter and the arrests. “Four people were taken into custody over an ‘unscheduled demonstration’ on Sunday, the New York Police Department said in a statement.” The New York Times writes.
Po had no idea that Chalamet would show up to a look-alike contest of himself. For a brief moment those in attendance thought that the real Chalamet had been dragged away by police but it was only a look alike and not the real deal.
After the police shut down the contest, it moved a couple of blocks away to Mercer Playground and a winner was crowned. The winner was Miles Mitchell from Staten Island who chose to compete as Chalamet’s Willy Wonka. Putman who dressed as Chalamet in his Chanel ads is on record as saying that he thinks Mitchell won because he was handing out chocolate.
Chalamet is not the only celebrity to have a look-a-like contest for them. According to The New York Times Dolly Parton entered a Dolly Parton look alike contest without revealing who she was and got the least applause out of the contestants. Charlie Chaplin Jr. told a story of how his dad Charlie Chaplin did the same thing and won third place. Po doesn’t have any plans to host anymore look-alike contests anytime soon because people will know it was him who set the whole thing up.
It is no surprise that SNL made a parody of the contest and Chloe Fineman dressed as Chalamet in a sketch taking place in Duane Reade convenience store in the Port Authority Bus Terminal. This sketch also brought an appearance from Pete Davidson to tease the contest on the November 2nd episode of SNL hosted by John Mulaney. The group of Chalamets in the sketch sang and danced to a parody of “Willkommen” from “Cabaret” The sketch was all in good fun, and as for the contest it was a good thing spoiled by police for a small, yet legitimate reason. Nevertheless, the group did not let that stop them and they crowned a winner and saw the actor himself make an appearance at the contest.
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