Dominican actress Massiel Taveras has spoken out on social media after she was filmed shoving a security guard at the Cannes Film Festival.
The 39-year-old TV presenter — who was attending the premiere of the French film “The Count Of Monte Cristo” — had reportedly been dazzling onlookers on the red carpet with her extravagant white gown, whose train was embellished with an image of Jesus Christ.
Taveras’ fashion showcase was unceremoniously cut short after a female usher appeared to try and hurry her inside, seemingly preventing the star from adjusting her ensemble.
The now-viral footage shows the unidentified staffer putting her arm around the head and chest of a visibly-agitated Taveras, who retaliates by putting her hand in the woman’s face.
Coincidentally, this was the same employee who had just days earlier been reprimanded by singer Kelly Rowland, 43, for reportedly trampling on the train of her dress and putting a hand on her back while trying to usher her inside.
Taveras didn’t directly address her own altercation, she did upload an Instagram story that referenced Rowland’s, suggesting she condoned the tongue-lashing, the Independent reported.
“We need respect,” read the caption to the post, which featured articles detailing the “Survivor” singer’s response to the kerfuffle.
“That woman knows what happened. I know what happened,” Rowland had said while attending the annual amfAR Cinema Against AIDS Cannes Gala. “I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries.”
The Destiny’s Child alum even suggested that race played a part in her treatment, declaring: “There were other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me and they didn’t get scolded, or pushed off, or told to get off. I stood my ground and she felt like she had to stand hers. But I stood my ground.”