Too close for comfort. Pete Davidson got upset after a fan invaded his personal space while attending a New York Knicks basketball game.
The Saturday Night Live alum, 29, stopped to take pictures with fans after sitting courtside with comedian Jon Stewart at the NBA team’s playoff game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, April 23. While leaning in to take a selfie with an attendee, a man reached over to place his arm around Davidson’s shoulder, prompting the actor to shove him away.
In another fan video of the incident shared via Twitter, the instigator can be seen placing his arm around the King of Staten Island star several times, in addition to resting his head on Davidson’s shoulder, before being told to back off. Though it’s unclear what the Dirt actor said to the man, Davidson’s facial expressions make it clear he was uncomfortable with the fan encounter.
Us Weekly reached out to the star’s reps for comment.
The outing at the Knicks game comes one week after it was revealed that Davidson would be making his SNL hosting debut on Saturday, May 6, with musical guest Lil Uzi Vert. “Coming up next!!!” read a post on the show’s Instagram page announcing the news on April 15. Having joined the NBC comedy series back in 2014, the Suicide Squad star announced his departure from the show after eight seasons in May 2022.
“When I got the show I was 20 years old and I had no idea what I was doing,” he said in a statement shared via SNL writer Dave Sirius’ Instagram account at the time. “I still don’t but especially back then. I wasn’t really a sketch performer I was just a stand-up [comedian]. I knew I could never keep up or go toe to toe with a Kenan Thompson or a Kate McKinnon so I was super scared at figuring out what I could possibly bring to or do for such a historic, respected show and platform.”
The Set It Up star has been candid about his time on the long-running sketch comedy show. He previously admitted that he began to feel like a “loser” after his high-profile dating life was poked fun at on the series. Davidson has dated several notable celebs over the years, including Ariana Grande, Kate Beckinsale, Margaret Qualley, Kaia Gerber, Kim Kardashian, Emily Ratajkowski and more.
“When it’s your own show, and I’ll be sitting in the back watching the cold open and [it’s] topical humor or whatever in the culture, and they’re making fun of you and you gotta walk out and do a sketch next and hit your mark …” he said on the March 30 episode of the “Real Ones With Jon Bernthal” podcast. “The show just made fun of you, so why are they going to laugh at you? They just dogged you.”
Most recently, Davidson has been romantically tied to his Bodies Bodies Bodies costar Chase Sui Wonders. The two were first spotted attending a hockey game together in December 2022, several months after he and Kardashian, 42, split in August of that year after less than one year of dating.
“Pete and Chase had insane chemistry on set,” a source exclusively told Us in January of the pair’s relationship. “As well as when the cameras weren’t rolling.” Though the two were continuing to claim they were still friends at the time, the insider noted that the actors were “too close for that.”