Ariana Grande gave blunt response when asked about 'terrifying' lookalike who recently turned up on red carpet

Ariana Grande's notorious doppelgänger Paige Niemann has this week gone viral for 'impersonating' the star at a red carpet movie premiere, prompting fans of the real Wicked actress to wonder how she must be feeling about it.

Grande has addressed her resemblance to the controversial social media 'cosplayer' several times publicly since the image-mirroring began - including on one brutal occasion, where she supposedly slammed Niemann as 'bizarre'.

Who is Paige Niemann?

The Mail previously reported that, when California schoolgirl Paige Niemann was just 10 years old, a friend noted her physical similarities to then-Disney Channel star, Ariana Grande - who is around 11 years older.

In the years prior, the actress was famed for portraying red-haired class clown Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon hits like Victorious and Sam & Cat, before launching a successful career as a pop singer.

Agreeing with the resemblance, Niemann then tried her hand at purposefully dressing up as Grande, with her first Instagram post - uploaded in 2017 - showing her donning a similar hot-red wig to the one worn on kids TV by the actress.

The years that followed saw Niemann copy the several changes that Grande made to her appearance - from her lengthy brunette ponytail and winged eyeliner phase of 2018-20, to the more minimal blonde get-up she's been donning more recently.

And after Wicked was released in cinemas in November of last year, the lookalike - who had since racked up a staggering 10.3 million fans on TikTok - went viral for recreating her performing as her character 'Glinda' in 'What Is This Feeling?', complete with pink dress and blonde wig.

Controversial copying

Despite her mighty online following, however, Niemann's fame hasn't come without its controversies.

2022 saw her subjected to mass backlash after reportedly signing up to the online subscription service OnlyFans - which is known for hosting explicit material - where she vowed to share 'exclusive content that you wouldn't normally see from me'.

The move raised questions of permission and consent on the part of the real 'Thank U Next' singer, with critics later branding Niemann 'weird', 'desperate' and 'creepy' on X.

And this week, Niemann's impersonating antics were seemingly raised to a whole new level after she made what she described online as her 'first red carpet appearance' on Monday (27 January), by the attending the movie premiere for Companion in Hollywood, dressed as Grande.

"I thought it’s a Madame Tussaud wax figure at first," one critic later slammed online, whilst another agreed: "Yeah I’m terrified too."

But how must the real Ariana Grande feel to know that she's having her entire aesthetic ripped off in public without her consent?

Ariana Grande's take

Whilst she's never explicitly hit out at Niemann's antics by using her name, she has taken a passionate stance against celebrities being impersonated on several occasions now.

According to Buzzfeed in 2019, the actress and musician, now 31, responded on X to a fans' theory about Niemann's rise to prominence, writing: "@knnewagb i just wonder whyyyy the cat voice / dialogue."

Grande is said to have continued: "i am sure she is the sweetest sweet sweetheart forreal !! but it’s definitley bizarre seeing people blend the two worlds lmao."

The news outlet also alleges that, on another occasion, Grande shared a now-deleted video of another internet user discussing the concept of impersonation online.

The video in question supposedly saw filmmaker Jordan Firstman explaining: "What if we, like, we took a moment, like a small clip from a movie or a TV show — something that, like, an artist really poured their soul into and it, like, it just took them years to make, and it was an uphill battle the entire time — what if we took a moment from that and we kind of, like, recontextualised it?

"Like, does that make sense? And we put a completely arbitrary meaning onto that thing that the artist loves so much? Kind of, like, degrading its entire value?"

Firstman added: "I just think that could be, like, a fun, bitchy thing to do," he ends the video. "I'm so bored... I just kind of wanna ruin someone's life today."

Apparently, Grande re-shared the clip with her own caption, writing: "Can this please also double as your impression of the pony tail TikTok girls who think doing the Cat Valentine voice and that wearing winged eyeliner and a sweatshirt is doing a good impersonation of me...

"Cause this is really how it feels."

And in a promo interview for Wicked with Variety more recently - where she was hooked up to a lie detecter and asked by co-star Cynthia Erivo whether she'd 'ever confronted' anyone who impersonated her - she began by claiming, 'No'.

Then, asked if she 'wanted to' - in a video which many fans interpreted as being about Niemann - Grande admitted: "Yes - in a fun way."