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The law works quickly in Singapore, where last week an Australian man with a habit of disrupting events charged at Ariana Grande after jumping a barrier at the Asian premiere of “Wicked: For Good.”
This week, he’s already serving his sentence for the offense.
Johnson Wen, 26, was convicted Monday of being a public nuisance and sentenced to nine days in jail, the BBC reported. Videos from the Thursday incident show Wen jumping a barricade at Universal Studios Singapore and running at Grande, then putting his arms around her neck and shoulders while jumping up and down and flashing a big smile to the cameras. He was separated from his shocked target by her co-star Cynthia Erivo and escorted off by security.
But that wasn’t all — Wen tried a second time to jump the barricades that lined the event’s yellow carpet but was pinned down by security, the BBC said. He was arrested Friday.
The Australian was in Singapore on a 90-day tourist visa and has been in custody since his arrest. He was sentenced Monday after the prosecution requested a week behind bars on a charge that carries up to a three-month sentence, according to Singapore’s the Straits Times.
“Dude this is is not okay,” one commenter had written Thursday on Wen’s Instagram post showing him charging onto the carpet and grabbing Grande. “Look how badly you scared her! You put hands on her. I sincerely hope you [are] charged with something and banned from events.”
The judge in Singapore apparently thought something similar when speaking with Wen at the trial.
Wen has disrupted several celebrity and sporting events by running onto stages and into the middle of sporting events, including at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. “I won’t do it again, your honor,” he told the judge when asked if there was anything to mitigate his behavior, per the Straits Times.
“Are you paying lip service or is this your intention?” the judge asked. Wen replied in the affirmative, saying he was “going to stop.”
The judge referenced Wen’s earlier intrusions and noted that he hadn’t faced consequences previously, the Straits Times reported.
“Perhaps you thought the same would occur here, but Mr. Wen, you are wrong,” the judge said, adding that there are always consequences to actions.
The judge said Wen seemed “to be attention-seeking, thinking only of yourself, and not the safety of others, when committing these acts.” He said the act was premeditated and added two days to the requested sentence. It’s unclear whether Wen was also fined.
Prosecutors had labeled him a “serial intruder” who was aiming for clout online, the BBC reported.
Wen, who goes by “Pyjama Man” online, wrote on Instagram as he posted video of himself during the Thursday incident, “Dear Ariana Grande Thank You for letting me Jump on the Yellow Carpet with You.” Commenters did not support his enthusiasm.
After doing promotion for “Wicked: For Good” with a number of her castmates in cities around the world, Grande did not mention what happened in Singapore when she appeared at a Q&A about the film on Saturday in Century City. On Sunday, she attended the motion picture academy’s 16th Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood, where Tom Cruise was given an honorary Oscar, along with Debbie Allen, Dolly Parton and production designer Wynn Thomas.
The U.S. premiere of “Wicked: For Good” — which also stars Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard — is planned for Monday in New York, with the movie opening domestically in wide release Thursday.
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Christie D’Zurilla
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