It’s no secret that “Wicked” is one of the hottest topics right now. Between the musical movie’s second part being released a few weeks ago and all the opinions floating around it, there are three names that are constantly in the news: Jonathan Bailey, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande. However, there is a fourth that has been added into the mix – Johnson Wen, who recently has been sentenced to nine days in jail after rushing Ariana Grande at the Wicked red carpet in Singapore.
People claimed that Wen jumped the barricade and attempted to put his arm around Grande and pose for a picture, before being quickly removed by security. This may just seem like another fan inappropriately seeking attention from a celebrity, but it turns out that Wen has more of a history than just this most recent incident.
Johnson Wen is a 26 year old from Australia. He has somewhat of an online presence, with an Instagram account with over 13k followers (@pyjamamann). The only posts he has are either somewhat disturbing selfies of himself, or footage of him stage-crashing other celebrities. His first stage-crash seems to be in 2023, where he ran onto the field during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Other “stage crashes” include Katy Perry, The Weeknd, and The Chainsmokers, as well as other sporting events like the 2024 Paris Olympics.
He posts all of his “stage crashing” videos to his Instagram page, and one eerie detail is that he captions each with “Thank you ___ for letting me ___.” In these videos, he is seen wearing shirts that have political and social messages on them- like “Free Palestine” or “Free Ukraine.” Wen claimed that after his Katy Perry stage crash, that he was done with the act. He explained that it was because “you get in way too much trouble for it.” However, if you didn’t already guess, it did not end there.
After his most recent crash, he was arrested and charged by Singaporean police for “being a public nuisance” according to People. He spent nine days in jail in Singapore, and then was sent back to Australia. Singapore’s immigration control informed NBC News that Wen is not allowed to re-enter the country because of his charges. Because of his actions, Wen has also managed to rack up nearly $20,000 in fines, all while being unemployed.
Ariana Grande has not spoken on the incident; however, many of her Wicked castmates have. Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Yeoh were both nearby and consoled Ariana Grande moments after the encounter, with Erivo even prying Wen off of Ariana herself. Marissa Bode, who played “Nessarose” in both Wicked movies, went on TikTok to address the behavior.
This is what I mean when I say social media brings out the worst in people,” she said. “Oh, did you get your views? Did you get your likes? Guess what you also did? You made somebody feel incredibly unsafe, but just — no remorse. [If] that goes over your head, you’re a bad person.”
– Marissa Bode via TikTok
Bode is right, giving a platform to people like this is exactly what we should not be doing.