Singapore authorities on Friday charged an Australian man with rushing movie star Ariana Grande to the Asian premiere of “Wicked: For Good.”
Grande and other stars were attending the film's premiere at Universal Studios in Singapore when a man, identified in court documents as 26-year-old Johnson Wen, jumped over a barricade and attacked the actor.
Wen was charged with “disturbing public order,” Singapore court documents posted online show. Wen represented himself and said he would plead guilty, according to the documents. He will appear in court again on Monday.
Viral video clips show the man hugging a shocked Grande before jumping up and waving to the crowd. Grande co-star Cynthia Erivo then rushes to her defense, jumping between Ven and Grande and pushing him away. He was then grabbed by guards and carried over the barricade again. The footage shows Erivo and others on the red carpet consoling Grande.
Following the incident, Wen shared a video on Instagram and thanked Grande for “letting (him) jump on the yellow carpet with her.”
If convicted, Wen faces a $1,500 fine, three months in prison, or both.
The Singapore Public Prosecution Service could not be reached for comment.
The presentation of the film took place on Thursday evening. “Evil: For Good” will be released in the USA on November 21.
Grande and Erivo have been inseparable during the musical's press tours. In December 2024, Erivo told CBS Mornings that the duo entered into an agreement at an early stage of production care and support each other.
“Before we started filming, we both talked about making sure that we were going to take care of each other and give each other the space that we needed and take, you know, give each other what we needed, be generous to each other in this endeavor because we knew it was a big undertaking,” Erivo said. “We knew we had a big responsibility, but we knew none of us could do it alone.”
Grande, 32, began her career as a teenager on Broadway before launching a hugely successful pop career. Perhaps at the height of her meteoric pop fame in 2017, one of her concerts blew up. Attack at Manchester Arena killed 22 people, injured more than 1,000 and left Grande with post-traumatic stress disorder.
