What we now know as the Met Ball–the over-the-top celeb-saturated red carpet spectacular–began quietly 65 years ago when superstar publicist Eleanor Lambert thought up a “Party of the Year” to raise money for the newly formed Costume Institute at the Met. Until recently, the party was a society event and a celeb siting was rare. Today, it’s a massive media event. It happened a week and a half ago and we’re still talking about it. In today’s short-attention span media cycle, that’s quite a feat.

In response to the increased interest in the Met Gala, Vogue is, for the first time ever, releasing a special edition devoted to all things Met Gala. The issue is on newsstands now.

In it, Billy Norwich, a Vogue contributor whom you probably know best as the host of Vogue‘s Met Gala red carpet livestream, pens a piece called “A Night at the Museum” which is meant to be a “bird’s-eye view behind the scenes of some recent Met-Ball standouts.” What it is, in fact, is a surprisingly dishy tell-all about some of the near-disasters (one of the peacocks flew his golden cage hours before the gala in 2007) and incredible celebrity diva moments that have gone down at Met Balls past.

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