Did Michael Costello just pull a Regina George?

If the continually unfolding drama surrounding the Chrissy Teigen bullying controversy is starting to give you major Mean Girls vibes, you’re not alone. Farrah Abraham, the Teen Mom star who was a target of Teigen’s online vitriol, compared Teigen’s most recent apology to a “Mean Girls movie spinoff,” and she may be on to something. The past few months, Teigen has been repeatedly called to task, and rightly so, for her past cyberbullying behavior towards celebrities, many of whom were just young girls at the time. The fallout has been swift, with Teigen losing several sponsorships and deals, and she has, metaphorically, been hit hard by the bus of public outcry. Are you seeing the Regina George similarities yet?

 In response, Teigen has offered up multiple public apologies, owning that her past behavior was horrible and cruel, asking forgiveness from those she hurt, and pledging to do better. In the Mean Girls world this could have been the Spring Fling moment, the obligatory school dance scene found in every teen movie, which provides the transitional moment for our characters to move from agony to redemption all in the matter of a “Spring Fling Queen” speech. But then in walked Michael Costello, throwing his hat into the ring with his own accusations, and it has us questioning if this crazy spinoff of Mean Girls might have more than one Regina George in it. 

Costello, a fashion designer, claims that Teigen sent him bullying private messages back in 2014 as he was facing a controversy of his own, when someone spread faked, photoshopped comments around the internet that accused him of using a racial slur.  Costello said Teigen’s bullying left him personally and professionally traumatized, feeling suicidal and depressed, and he had the receipts to prove it. He posted the screenshots of the alleged DM which showed Teigen telling Costello that he “deserved to suffer and  die” and “his career was over, just watch.” Mean words from a mean girl. That is, if they really were from Teigen. This is where things take an interesting turn, worthy of any teen movie plot twist. 

After Costello posted the damning screenshots, sharped eyed observers began to note inconsistencies in the photos. Glaring errors such as the misspelling of Teigen’s name, the presence of a video chat icon, and the wrong background colors all pointed to the photos being doctored. So to make sure we are all on the same page, Costello called out Teigen’s problematic behavior over a controversy which involved photoshopped comments falsely attributed to him by allegedly using photoshopped comments he falsely attributed to Teigen. Whew. If this is true, this may be the most Regina George move of all, akin to when she wrote her own burn in the burn book and then spread it around for everyone to read. 

The problem is, this isn’t a movie. These are real people. Suddenly, the focus has shifted from the suffering of the victims of Teigen’s online bullying and her apologies to them, to the spectacle of Michael Costello with his allegedly photoshopped accusations. Costello released a statement doubling down on the DMs, though he has since deleted the images from his Instagram account. It’s not really clear what exactly is going on, whether Costello’s claims are true or not, whether his photos were faked or not, but I think it’s pretty clear that his foray into the Teigen bullying drama has been a mess which has done more harm than good.