Kate Beckinsale credits Keanu Reeves with saving her from a major wardrobe malfunction at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.
The actress recalled the high-stakes moment on Instagram Tuesday after attending this year’s soirée and “remembering [her] first time on these steps 30 years ago in scuffed steel toe capped Dr Martens.”
“So my mum DID find one of the original Cannes pictures but unfortunately it’s not full length so you can’t see the Dr Martens,” she told her followers before going into the story behind the image, which showed Beckinsale, then 19, walking the red carpet with “Much Ado about Nothing” co-stars Reeves, Robert Sean Leonard and Denzel Washington.
“I had bought the bodysuit in the Sock Shop at the airport,” she explained, “and when I got in the car to drive to the premiere with Denzel and Pauletta Washington, all the poppers in the crotch popped themselves open and it flipped up like a roller blind.”
Beckinsale, 49, “didn’t feel it was appropriate to go delving around in [her] undercarriage” to clip her bodysuit back together, so she “just quietly panicked.”
Upon exiting the vehicle and stepping out “onto the biggest red carpet of [her] life,” the “Pearl Harbor” star “whispered to Keanu and Robert Sean Leonard what had happened.”
“In this picture I am holding the front gusset down and the two of them are holding the back gusset,” she shared, referring to the reinforced piece of fabric sewn into a garment.
Beckinsale went on to call the actors “absolute legends who may not even have fully understood the physics of what was happening or even heard the word ‘gusset’ before.
“But both jumped in to save me no questions asked x.”
Beckinsale attended the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last week, and her strikingly youthful appearance caused many to wonder whether she “had a facelift because it’s not possible to be this gorgeous at 50 ❤️❤️❤️.”
“No threads no thread lift no Botox no laser no nose job no filler,” the “Serendipity” actress replied to one inquiring social media user.
“I do have facials with prp to boost collagen and micro current for skin tightening and oxygen,” she explained. “I probably would try laser but I’m a bit scared. Haven’t so far.”
A few doubted Beckinsale’s denial, with one asking, “Lol why do Celebrities have to deny their face procedures? Just dont lie about it ..she still looks great!”
She once again shot down the theory and scolded the critic.
“I’m not lying,” she responded, “and I don’t have to accept people accusing me of things I haven’t done.”
The mother of one went on to claim to another skeptic that she “actually can’t” use injectables because she has “a condition called mast cell activation syndrome.”
According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, patients with MCAS experience repeated episodes of the symptoms of anaphylaxis (whole-body allergic reaction), including hives, swelling, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing and severe diarrhea.
Beckinsale explained that she reacts “to hundreds of things badly” and called living with the condition “a massive daily struggle.”
Therefore, she feels she “can’t take the risk” with invasive facial treatments.