She Took Jay-Z's Drink Order. Then Came the Death Threats

Nicole Curran says misinterpreted look on Bey's face at NBA game led to 'cyberbullying'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 7, 2019 7:00 AM CDT
She Took Jay-Z's Drink Order. Then Came the Death Threats
Beyonce walks to her seat during the first half of Game 3 of basketball's NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, June 5, 2019.   (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Cyberbullying over a citrus slice? That's what Nicole Curran is claiming after an incident at an NBA Finals game Wednesday that she says led to death threats and the deletion of her Instagram account. ESPN reports that Curran, the wife of Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, had been seated courtside in Oracle Arena during the team's game against the Toronto Raptors, right next to none other than Beyonce and Jay-Z. A video clip of Curran leaning over Beyonce to talk to Jay-Z, with Beyonce in the middle, made it onto TV. Because Beyonce had a look on her face that some interpreted as annoyance, Curran suddenly found herself thrust into a social media maelstrom. The clip quickly went viral, spurring what BuzzFeed calls a "wave of harassment" against Curran.

"That girl was very rude," one Twitter commenter noted, with another posting, "Beyonce don't like that girl beside her at all." And those were the more innocuous remarks, with Curran saying she ended up receiving death threats online "all night" due to the interaction, per Fox News. What she says she was talking to Jay-Z about? "I was trying to be a good hostess," she says, adding she simply asked Jay-Z if he wanted lime with the vodka soda he requested. (Beyonce just asked for water.) Indeed, if you read Curran's lips in the video clip it appears she said, "You want lime?" "I've never experienced cyberbullying like this," she tells ESPN, noting she had to disable her Instagram. She says Bey and Jay were the Warriors' guests, and had been before. The music giants' publicist, meanwhile, took to Instagram to tell fans not to "spew hate," per the Independent. (More Jay-Z stories.)

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