Singapore immigration authorities have deported Johnson Wen, the Australian who jumped on Ariana Grande to hug her during the film premiere Wicked: Part II in Singapore, a moment captured in a video that went viral. The actress and singer experienced a tense moment when a man managed to get around the security barriers and took her by surprise. The individual slipped into the audience and pounced on her, clearly startling Grande, which caused a stir among those present. Her co-star, Cynthia Erivo, had an immediate reaction to protect her by fighting the intruder until event security intervened.
The government agency reported this to the newspaper The Straits Times that this Sundayon November 23, he sent Wen back to his country, sentenced to nine days in prison for the crime of disturbing public order, and who was also banned from returning to the city-state.
Wen pleaded guilty to the crime and agreed with the prosecutor’s office to spend a week in prison, but magistrate Christopher Goh assessed that the defendant is a “repeat offender” and that with his planned act he was “trying to attract attention”, so he considered a “small increase” of the sentence appropriate and increased his sentence to nine days in prison. “Maybe you thought the same thing would happen here, but Mr. Wen, you are wrong. Keep in mind that there are always consequences for our actions,” the magistrate said, according to the media cited above. Singapore, a semi-autocratic island with strict laws that limit demonstrations and preserve public order, punishes rioting with up to three months’ imprisonment and fines of up to 2,000 Singapore dollars (about $1,536.50), according to the penal code.
The Australian had already been the protagonist of episodes of this type in the past, such as the events that occurred with the American singer Katy Perry and the Canadian The Weeknd. Another of these was when she took the field during the final of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, in which she shared the incident on her profile on the social network Instagram, as she did regarding how she was preparing to meet Ariana Grande and her reactions after her arrest.
Ariana Grande has not commented on the case and has continued to appear in promotion of the film. The artist, who admitted to suffering from post-traumatic stress and depression after the attack on May 22, 2017 in Manchester, which occurred after one of her concerts and which caused 22 deaths and more than a hundred injuries, was seen in a state of intoxication. shock after Wen’s assault and comforted by her co-stars, Erivo and Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh. For her part, two days after the accident, the British actress who plays the witch Elphaba Evil He alluded to the incident when he spoke publicly about his relationship with Grande during filming: “We’ve been through some things in our lives, in our daily work… even in the last week, let’s be honest,” Erivo said.
