Timothée Chalamet's Team Offered to Pay Look-alike Contest Organizer's Fine After Viral Arrests

Timothée Chalamet's team made a generous offer after New York City's look-alike contest resulted in arrests.

In an interview published on Dec. 3, the event's organizer Anthony Po told PEOPLE that he was issued a $500 fine for hosting the contest at Washington Square Park without a permit.

"The production [cost] like $4,000, so it's like legit the best case scenario," the 23-year-old explained. "They needed to do something stronger to [disincentivize] us."

Po revealed that after footage of participants being arrested went viral, the news reached the Oscar nominee's team. "They offered to pay the ticket, which is truly funny," said Po. He disclosed that instead of accepting the actor's offer, the app Partiful, which was used to send out invites to the contest, took care of the fine.

However, Chalamet's team also passed along a message from the actor with the generous offer: "They basically [said] like, 'We thought it was awesome. Thanks so much.' "

The actor himself was also briefly present at the event, making a surprise appearance. Though Po unfortunately didn't spot him, the actor was included in the roundup of lookalikes, coming in at 13th.

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"I think if he would've stayed for the end of it, maybe I would've given him runner-up or something," opined Po. Instead, 21-year-old Miles Mitchell was given the honor of the top Chalamet doppelgänger.

Matt Mannix, one of the look-alikes who was arrested at the event, previously told Teen Vogue that he was shoved by a police officer while getting his photo taken.

"It was without warning — it wasn't like he was talking to me, he just came in and initiated the interaction by pushing me," he recalled. "So then in the process of me asking why he's pushing me, he just pushes me again with both hands, like really pushes me forward, and then grabs both of my wrists. He holds on to my wrists for about three minutes, and he would not let go."

Mannix said that though he asked the cop if he was being detained and what crime he had committed, he did not receive an answer.

"They never really said why, they just kept saying I failed to disperse, but it was really unclear to me what I needed to disperse for and why they just picked on me randomly," he explained. "There were a whole lot of people there."

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Timothee Chalamet, New york city