Paris Fashion Week has exposed the rudest A-listers in Hollywood for who they really are: JANE TIPPETT

What is it about a fashion show that seems capable of bringing out the ugliest in its famous attendees? Seated on the front row at the Louis Vuitton show – one of Paris Fashion Week’s most high profile – Zendaya barely seemed to take in that she had been greeted by the First Lady of France.

The wife of the country’s president and the most important political poster child in the world for designer creations – bar Melania Trump – seemed to be met by a nonplussed Zendaya. The Spider-Man star, clad in a voluminous white lace jacket paired with a tank top, straight leg jeans and her signature pointy pumps, seemed unmoved when Brigitte Macron approached for a greeting. She has not issued a comment.

Coming off the back of Jennifer Lopez’s irked reaction to surrendering her giant umbrella at the Stella McCartney show a few days earlier and Rihanna’s delayed arrival at Dior, which caused the runway show to start late, it seems impossible to ignore that fashion week, and Paris in particular, has a habit of shining a light on the less congenial side of celebrity personality.

A generous read of Zendaya’s interaction with the First Lady is that perhaps she was not quite clear on who the blonde-bobbed woman was, and so she chose to stay seated, offering only a passing acknowledgment.

Having not risen for either Macron or Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH, who had a few moments before also sought her out to say hello, Zendaya caught the flak of fans and critics who were stunned at the overt display of self-absorption.

Few can of course forget the Duchess of Sussex’s debut at the Balenciaga show last year when she was accused of barely stifling a laugh watching a model stumble before her on the catwalk. Was it nervous distress for the calamitous moment or simply the less-than-kind-nature of the tooth and nail culture of nabbing a coveted spot up front rearing its ugly face?

And Cara Delevingne managed to spark a frenzy when she went unrecognized at the Stella McCartney show in September last year and was forced to take her place in the queue rather than be ushered in on account of her famous face.

Amidst the glamour and glitz of the fashion show and the inevitable waxing and waning by the designer of the creative journey behind it, these once industry-only trade events have transformed into high-stakes, multi-billion-dollar marketing spectacles where everything about the catwalk is carefully strategized and executed for full media effect. And celebrities, whether inclined to acknowledge it or not, are merely one of the many cogs in the wheel of the money-making system.

While famous attendees may be basking in a surplus of attention as they arrive to a swarm of photographers nervous to take their picture while dressed head-to-toe in the designer-of-the-day’s creation, they are, in fact, likely merely there to sing for their supper.

They most likely haven’t spent the several hundreds of thousands required of the many anonymous attendees (that secures them a still coveted but less advantageous second or third row seat).

Instead, these front row bigheads cosplaying as Anna Wintour are merely seat fillers functioning as marketing assets, who through a single viral moment or custom look, can generate millions for brands. Simultaneously, they also prove to fans – and most importantly themselves – that their star remains aligned with the forces of fashion that drive fame as much as the movies or music they make.

The seemingly ‘diva behavior’ of women who are quite literally jockeying for the front row – not just for the particular fashion show they are attending but the industry in which their fame resides – seems, despite the far more grandiose settings, little different than the cafeteria of most American high schools with the popular table and those relegated elsewhere.

Then, snagging a gig as an official brand ambassador – like Rihanna who is the face of Dior’s iconic J’Adore fragrance – might be seen as a feather in the cap for LVMH, but in reality, it is the pop singer who profits not just from the financial remuneration but from the fashion stamp of approval that confirms she remains an international cultural touchstone.

An employee of a multi-billion-dollar company who hasn’t likely heard the word ‘No’ in the last several decades might be loath to admit that just occasionally she might have to follow the rules of a higher authority – no doubt an uncomfortable truth.

Why not, then, in order to make a bold demonstration of celebrity autonomy, decide to be extremely fashionably late and delay the work of an artistic wunderkind, as Rihanna appeared to do at Jonathan Anderson’s Dior show? Certainly, it seems the weeks and hours leading up to his presentation – undoubtedly a maelstrom of creative consensus amongst a large and, by the time of the show’s debut, exhausted team – were not considered, though she has not given a reason for her lateness.

If anything, Rihanna’s spectacle served as a way to prove for herself and the public that she could not only command the stage but the audience in which she sat.

A long-standing devotee of Louis Vuitton, Zendaya has often been pictured in one of its creations – something that is always noticed by her ever-expanding fan base.

While Brigitte Macron may be the First Lady of France and a more loyal client of the brand – and LVMH as a company for that matter – than Zendaya, one wonders if the star not rising is as much about ignorance as a not-so-subtle reminder that when it comes to the stakes of celebrity and shows, hers is by far the more important position.

Yet in an industry where controversy and dramatic behavior keep both the celebrity and the brand trending, a little bit of theatrical tension is not only to be expected but encouraged. Fighting for the best seat and determined to get it often at the expense of good manners – these women display all the hallmarks of the insecurity that inevitably underlies fame.

Seemingly conscious of its fragility and thus eager to prove its centrality whenever they have the chance, fashion weeks, which should be about the celebration of female identity through clothes, instead have become venues for some of the more base instincts in human nature.

While I doubt anything will change, here’s hoping that these less than positive headlines from the last week, at least for some of these attendees, make them think twice about what really matters when it comes to the runway.