Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.
You’ve seen the Glambot—the slow-motion camera stationed on the red carpet at all of the big award shows, capturing celebs either nailing a quick pose or embarrassing themselves. Well, I never thought I’d type this sentence, but: Some drama has recently unfolded that has turned the Glambot’s lens into crosshairs pointed right at its director (and the face of the carpet gimmick), Cole Walliser. The whole scenario is rather unintelligible and perplexing—it somehow involves wedding planning and Jennifer Lopez?—but don’t worry if you’d rather not follow the so-called scandal yourself. I’m here to break down the latest target of the internet’s pitchforks.
Who is Cole Walliser, what is a Glambot, and why are people talking about either or both of these things?
The Glambot is the infamous camera that is featured, via E!, on the red carpet for many awards shows. You’d likely know a Glambot video if you saw it: Celebrities are asked to strike an easy pose in their designer gowns and tuxedos, and when it goes well, it results in a beautiful clip of your favorite celebrity. When it goes poorly, it results in a timeless meme. The person who directs the Glambot for E!’s red carpet coverage is Cole Walliser, a Canadian content creator whose previous work included shooting concert footage for Katy Perry and Pink. Walliser has been directing the Glambot since approximately 2016, and his job seems to include introducing the celebrities to the camera, telling them the way the camera moves, advising them on poses, and then deciding which shot the camera operators will use to best capture their famous subject.
If you knew Walliser, it was as the kind and cheerful guy coaxing the celebs through the camera process. Now, he’s the internet’s public enemy. And it all somehow started with JLo.
… As in Jennifer Lopez? What?
Walliser often posts Glambot clips from the carpet to his personal accounts. About a week ago, a video of Lopez doing the Glambot at the Golden Globes red carpet caught the attention of the online public—and not in a good way. In it, Lopez is particularly tight-lipped and efficient, failing to say much to Walliser or address him warmly. As one of the top comments on the post reads: “My favorite part was when she didn’t look at, speak to, or smile at you.” This clip went viral on social media, developing into a larger conversation about Lopez’s long-alleged rudeness—a conversation that it seems like we have every three business days. (Or, as one of my colleagues aptly said: “JLo being rude? Fork found in kitchen.”) Some internet sleuths found other angles of the interaction as well as older clips of Lopez doing the Glambot as “proof” of Lopez’s alleged discourtesy toward Walliser over the years.
I still don’t see how this turned into Walliser getting “canceled.”
Well, that’s where it gets complicated. A few days ago, Walliser posted a video with a full-throated defense of Lopez. In it he assures people that Glambot videos are “completely elective,” so he has a fondness for any celebrity who stops to do it. He also explains that “red carpets are so insane” and a “crazy environment” with celebrities getting “ushered” to “hey do this thing, do this thing, do this thing” while paparazzi are screaming at them. Walliser also reminds people that when celebrities are on the red carpet they’re “at work,” and just like us laypeople, they might be Chatty Cathys at work or more tight-lipped. He asserts that he has “never felt that people were rude” to him and that if they are distracted or terse he doesn’t take it personally. He explains that Lopez arrived after the carpet was closed and she was hurrying to get inside. He even defended her lack of eye contact: It was clear to him that she had already decided what pose she wanted to do and that pose just happened to start facing away from him, he said.
Plenty of celebrities sang his praises in the Instagram comments. Rachel Zegler commented that Walliser is “always the kindest face to run into on what is otherwise an intensely pressure-filled evening,” Ashley Park called Walliser a “sweetie”; Eiza González commented that Walliser is “the absolute sweetest always.”
So how did this turn into a hate train against him?
That evening another post went viral, but this time Walliser was framed as the villain. It showed a screengrab of an email exchange from 2019 between Walliser and a bride-to-be, Yinka Animashaun. The emails show Animashaun asking Walliser for his availability and rates to bring the Glambot to her wedding. Instead of just providing the requested information, Walliser responds by explaining what the Glambot is (presumably, the woman who solicited him already knows), and saying “It is not cheap, if you feel like something like this might be within your budget range, then I am happy to discuss further.” When Animashaun asserts that it is likely something within her budget range, Walliser still doesn’t give her the requested info, instead firing back with a dubious: “I don’t see how you could be since I didn’t say how much it was and could be between $10,000 and $1,000,000.” She responds asserting that she assumed it was going to be expensive and then asked for the steps to book. It takes even more back-and-forth before Walliser finally tells her that it’s $300,000.
—$300,000?!?!?!?!
In his emails, he alleges that the cost covers “a crew of about 15 people plus network set ups, rehearsals, gear drop off, camera rental, lighting rental, insurance, permits, etc etc etc.” Though wedding services always cost more than they seem like they should, plenty of people have pointed out that there’s no reason this should be so expensive. One of those people is Nigel Barker, the notable fashion photographer and America’s Next Top Model judge, who commented on an Instagram post that he used to creative-direct the Glambot several years ago and has since “booked the camera system on other jobs” like for an “ALO Yoga campaign.” Barker states: “It costs around $25K for basic package in NY or LA.”
Understandably, this has also brought up some very good questions about who even owns the Glambot, whether Walliser is even needed to operate it, and how he became such a known personality that this discourse is even something people care to participate in.
Innnnteresting. So, is that where their email correspondence ends?
I wish! Animashaun then says she will reach out by that Monday (the email exchange is dated to March 1, 2019—a Friday). But, puzzlingly, Walliser responds: “If you wanted to know how much it costs you just needed to ask, you don’t need to pretend you are going to book it.” Naturally, this bristly response baffled Animashaun, who then decided not to pursue it any further.
As Animashaun’s post was going viral—on X it has received 46,000 likes and 6 million views and has even been reposted by Pop Crave—a response tweet by someone who goes by @EyesOnRoman, consisting of a screenshot from 2019 of his own conversation with Walliser, also gained some traction. The screenshot shows the user DMing Walliser on Instagram to ask if they could book Walliser for their wedding. According to the image, Walliser responded: “Hey dude. I mean you caaaaaaaaaaan but there’s a reason the Glambot is only at the Oscars, the Grammys and the Golden Globes,” before ending the message with five money-bag emojis.
OK, I can’t say that I know who Cole Walliser is, but I will admit that all of this does sound unnecessarily rude.
It’s certainly not the way I would handle potential clients as a freelancer, but to each their own. Also, 2019 was seven years ago at this point—maybe he’s changed? But it is worth noting that some people are pointing out the possibility of a racial element to Walliser’s assumption that these people couldn’t afford the Glambot, considering that both parties who reached out to Walliser are nonwhite (Walliser is multiracial).
But now people are making memes and joking about Walliser’s presumptuous responses. Meanwhile others are lambasting him for his rudeness.
Not to be all Hollywood conspiracy theorist-y, but is there a chance JLo orchestrated this to blow some of the heat off of her?
What’s so random about this—despite the obvious—is that all of this blew up after Walliser was trying to explain away the reasons people were mad at Lopez in the first place. He was coming to her defense and instead got Milkshake Ducked. Plenty of people on X have made jokes about Lopez being behind Walliser’s downfall. While it seems unlikely Lopez would bother addressing an accusation of rudeness—a reputation that has already been following her for years—it is an interesting feat of timing that Lopez was caught on camera handing an unhoused man cash on Tuesday. The comments and responses are full of people launching similar criticisms that Lopez’s team staged the interaction.
Has the Glambot guy responded to any of this?
Not yet, but you know who has? The original creator of the Glambot, prominent music video director Joseph Kahn. In a Tuesday post to X, Kahn claimed that he created the camera tech in 2016, stating that “The lighting, camera work, lens choices, and methodology are all my design.” He continued by explaining that he stopped directing the Glambot because he was too busy with other work. However, he did add that his original intention behind the camera was not to “just be a series of poses” but to “tell a story” and “get to know” the celebrities.
Additionally, Animashaun spoke to People magazine about her online interaction with Walliser. In her statement she explains: “As a Black woman, I am no stranger to people making assumptions about who I am or what I am capable of, but I think his responses to me were exceptionally unprofessional and unkind.” She added that “to this day, his response shocks me,” before concluding that she hopes this whole ordeal can “be a learning experience for him and enable him [to] be better or at least a bit more kind.”
I can’t lie. I’m surprised that people care about this at all.
Me too! And dare I say: We shouldn’t! We know too much about too many people these days. As one X user put it: “We shouldn’t know the name or face of ‘the glambot guy.’ ” And also, can I posit that the Glambot is kinda annoying now? We as a society have moved past it. We can just talk to celebrities on red carpets about their work and how they’re doing—that’s always been fine.
This whole ordeal is a great reminder of how scattered the concept of “celebrity” and “notability” is these days. This is simply a byproduct of the influencer economy—and one of the downsides to the growing reality that truly anyone can achieve some version of fame. This controversy (if you can even call it that) will come and go, but the machine that allowed it to emerge in the first place will simply churn out a new milquetoast scandal surrounding a familiar internet face in a few week’s time. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
