Kendall Jenner held birthday bash as COVID cases rise

Nov. 2, 2020 1:45 PM PT

Kendall Jenner is a model — of what not to do during an ongoing global pandemic.

On Halloween, the 24-year-old — who will turn 25 on Nov. 3 — held a star-studded early birthday party at Harriet’s Rooftop at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood.

Representatives for Jenner did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

In attendance at the party: singer The Weeknd (dressed as the 1996 Eddie Murphy character Sherman Klump), rapper Saweetie (body painted as the “X-Men” character Mystique), singer Doja Cat (dressed as Tyra Banks) and Jenner’s sister, Kylie Jenner.

By many accounts the party reportedly included signs asking guests not to post to social media, stating “NO SOCIAL MEDIA: Take all of the photos you want, but please do not post on social media of any kind.”

Kylie, however, was seemingly posting live updates of her sister’s birthday bash all night.

“Entertainment Tonight” reported that everyone entering the venue (employees and guests) was given a rapid COVID-19 test on-site and was required to show a negative result before entering the party.

“At Kendall’s, everyone got tested before they walked in the door,” Kris Jenner told Radio Andy on Monday. “And they had to wait a half an hour until the results were in. And everybody was tested before, a few days before Halloween.”

The party was, of course, in direct and clear opposition to CDC COVID-19 prevention guidelines, which recommend maintaining a distance of at least six feet and wearing masks.

Also on Saturday, the U.S. reported 99,321 new daily cases of coronavirus. As of Monday morning, California had recorded 935,534 total COVID-19 cases, according to The Times’ coronavirus tracker.

Social media users were outraged by the Jenners’ lack of empathy. One Twitter user posted a now-viral video apparently from Kylie’s Instagram story of Kendall leaning over a birthday cake to blow out candles. The masked waiter holding the cake visibly moves away from Kendall’s air stream.

“We are really responsible, and we make sure that everyone in our family and our closest friends are tested religiously,” Kris Jenner said on Radio Andy. “We do what we can, we try to follow the rules, and then if people are commenting and they’re being critical, I can’t control that. I just can control how we behave, and try to do the best we can.”

And if you’ve been “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” — or even just skimming the headlines — you know that this isn’t the first time in the past week that the Kardashian-Jenner clan has gotten itself into hot water.

On Thursday’s episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Khloé Kardashian defended sister Kim’s decision to throw herself a birthday party on a private island in the middle of a pandemic.

“I haven’t heard a lot about it, but I did hear that people were upset that we all went out of town,” she told DeGeneres. “I don’t really know the extent of it, but this year is a frustrating year. I get it. I think there’s so many frustrations going on for everybody.”

“But also, it’s her 40th, and this is something that she really wanted to do for us,” Khloé continued. “It was such a nice thing. ... We felt so safe, and we did it in the safest way I could imagine when doing it. ... It was such a beautiful experience, and I want Kim to focus on how beautiful it was and what she did for everybody.”

Kim’s original tweet about the private island getaway was received with swift and harsh backlash on social media — including a whole host of parody posts.

“After 2 weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine,” Kardashian infamously tweeted, “I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time.”

Kendall Jenner held star-studded birthday bash as daily COVID cases rise to 99,321