Justin Sylvester told Beyoncé no.
Sylvester was a guest co-host Monday on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna when he shared a pinch-me moment he's had in his career — the time he declined an invitation from Beyoncé to hang out.
Sylvester said he was at an annual Oscars after-party thrown by Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Of all the parties, Sylvester noted, this one is "the Oscar Party to get into."
"It’s like the biggest deal ever," he said while setting the scene of a basement party in the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles. He attended with a date.
"We go to this Oscar party and we’re standing up and all of a sudden, I see this woman sauntering up," he vividly recounted. "She’s in this gilded gown and she’s walking up. And she comes up ... and it’s Beyoncé."
Sylvester said the "Lemonade" creator looked right at him and asked, “Are you coming? We’re gonna go. Are you guys staying?” Sylvester recalled of their conversation.
Sylvester was taken aback, even though he's been in the business for over a decade and regularly rubs elbows with celebrities. But in this case, he said he was just "trying to keep it cool because if Beyoncé comes, you just want to keep it cool."
His date, on the other hand, was not as poised, Sylvester said.
"He tries to act like he doesn’t care about celebrities," but when face-to-face with Beyoncé, Sylvester had to keep it together for the both of them, Sylvester said.
"My date, I’m holding up with one arm because he’s falling, keep in mind he’s 210 pounds of dead weight over here and I’m like 'get it together,'" Sylvester playfully scolded.
Sylvester managed to decline the invitation in the midst of playing it cool. Jenna Bush Hager asked why he said no.
"The minute I would’ve got in the car, she would’ve realized that I wasn’t the person she thought she was talking to," Sylvester said.
He said right after Beyoncé walked away, her friend Kelly Rowland, and her husband, Tim Witherspoon, walked by.
"He and I look sort of alike," Sylvester said, referring to Witherspoon.
"We look sort of alike, OK, but I had a blue tuxedo on that day and he had a blue tuxedo on so she thought I was Kelly Rowland’s husband,” Sylvester said.
Jenna said she still would've gotten in the car and that she thinks Sylvester should have too.
He said no because "I feel like Jay-Z doesn’t play that. I feel like I would’ve gotten in the car and he would’ve been like ‘yo, I got 99 problems.'"
Jenna heeded that advice and agreed. Jay-Z has 99 problems and they don't want to be one.
