In a trial held this Monday 17 November in Singapore, Australian Johnson Wen, 26, was sentenced to nine days in prison for disorderly conduct after assaulting singer and actress Ariana Grande. The viral incident occurred on November 13, at the film’s premiere Evil: forever on the island. The young man, who had previously declared on his social networks that he was preparing to meet “his best friend Ariana Grande”, jumped the security barriers to hug the artist, in a video that went viral and in which the actress Cynthia Erivo – co-star of the film – was also seen grappling with the intruder.
According to the BBC, following the incident, in which Wen was stopped by security guards and then let go – he was seen on social media boasting that he was free within hours – police in the city-state arrested him the next day and charged him with disorderly conduct, to which he pleaded guilty. In a deal with the defendant, prosecutors asked for a week in jail, arguing that he was a “serial intruder” who publicized his behavior to gain popularity on the Internet.
Wen had already been the protagonist of episodes of this type in the past, such as when she invaded the stage of artists such as the American Katy Perry or the Canadian The Weeknd, or when she jumped onto the pitch during the final of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Against this background, the local newspaper The times of the Strait reported that magistrate Christopher Goh assessed that the defendant is a “repeat offender” and that with his planned act he was “seeking to attract attention”, which is why he assessed that a “small increase” of two days in prison compared to the previously agreed sentence was appropriate, so that Wen would put an end to his behavior “forever”. “Maybe you thought the same thing would happen here, but, Mr. Wen, you are wrong. You must keep in mind that there are always consequences for our actions,” the magistrate said, according to the aforementioned media.
Singapore is a semi-autocratic island with strict laws that limit demonstrations and preserve public order and which punish any disturbance with imprisonment of up to three months and fines of up to 2,000 Singapore dollars (about 1,324 euros), according to the penal code.
Ariana Grande has not commented on the case and continued to appear in public at events in Los Angeles this weekend. 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 left 22 dead and more than a hundred injured, was seen in a state of shock after Wen’s attack 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.
Evil: forever arrives in theaters on November 21st, following the success of its first chapter. The center of the story will continue to be the two witch friends, now separated by a regime of lies.
