UPDATE 7/9/26 at 3:13 p.m. ET: A spokesperson for Madison Square Garden has shared a statement with Us Weekly in response to WIRED‘s report.
“WIRED’s reporting is inaccurate and false,” the statement reads. “MSG is pursuing legal remedies.”
Original story below.
Celebrity fans packed the sidelines of Madison Square Garden during the New York Knicks’ run to the NBA championship, and even more filed in weeks later for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding.
It now appears many had a risk assessment attached to them by the Garden itself, according to a story from WIRED on Thursday, July 9.
The outlet reported that more than 400 celebrities, including several who were at the wedding, have been assigned a risk score by an internal MSG database, ranging from “flag,” the lowest, to “banned from MSG.”
The designations came to light after criminal hacker collective ShinyHunters published a “treasure trove” of documents from the company, which included a database of almost 40,000 celebrities and public figures. About 1 percent of them were assigned a risk score.
Five attendees at Swift and Kelce’s wedding — Ice Spice, Selena Gomez, Benson Boone, Michael Strahan and Mariska Hargitay — were labeled “low risk.”
Low risk is the second-lowest tier in the database, and also includes diehard Knicks fans Edie Falco, Tracy Morgan and Ben Stiller. Medium risk comes after that and includes Lily Allen, Anna Wintour and Morgan Wallen. Freddie Gibbs, Lil Jon, DaBaby, and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie are all high risk, and rapper Lil Tjay has been banned from The Garden.
A spokesperson for Madison Square Garden refuted WIRED‘s story, saying in a statement to Us Weekly, “WIRED‘s reporting is inaccurate and false. MSG is pursuing legal remedies.”
The story did not mention Charles Oakley’s risk assessment despite widespread reports that he has been banned from MSG. An MSG spokesperson told Us in June that it would be inaccurate to say Oakley, 62, is “banned.”
The reasons for each characterization are unclear, but some seem to have been labeled as risks due to previous comments critical of Madison Square Garden or its CEO, James Dolan. A source told WIRED that Fat Joe was flagged as “medium risk” because of his association with Jadakiss, who once said of Dolan, 71, “It seems like he’s always more happier when the team sucks.”
Us has reached out to The Garden for comment.
WIRED also revealed that the database lists 32 political figures who have supported MSG in the past and “tracks some celebrities’” race, gender identity and sexual orientation. That includes 93 people labeled “LGBTQIA,” such as Ricky Martin and Phoebe Bridgers.
The report comes two months after WIRED ran a story delving into MSG’s so-called “surveillance machine,” which it alleges “obsessively tracked” a trans woman “over a two-year period, monitoring her movements through the venue down to the second.”
A report reviewed by the outlet noted the exact time that the woman took the escalator up to the concourse, paid for a drink and more, while also including the screenshot of a security camera capturing her hugging an usher. It also noted the time she entered the women’s bathroom and exited precisely two minutes and five seconds later.
“I’ve never met James Dolan. I don’t know the higher-up leadership at Madison Square Garden. But, like, there does seem to be a bit of a pattern here,” Evan Greer, director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, told WIRED. “They just seem overly interested in queer and trans people in their venue.”
