In 2018, high school senior Allison Closs made headlines when she took a cardboard cutout of actor Danny DeVito as her prom date.
What started as a quirky idea turned into a viral sensation, capturing the hearts of many and even catching the attention of DeVito himself.
Allison Closs, a senior at Carlisle High School in Pennsylvania, struggled to find a date for her prom.
Instead of sitting out the event, she decided to bring a cardboard cutout of Danny DeVito.
“When I looked on Amazon, there’s actually a nice variety of cardboard cutouts of Danny DeVito to choose from,” Closs told INSIDER. “So that was convenient.”
Bringing a cardboard cutout of “Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Matilda” star to prom wasn’t easy. Closs had to park her car far from the venue and fight the wind to keep “Danny” from blowing away.
“It was windy, and Danny was blowing around. I was trying to keep him under control and was grabbing him for dear life,” she recounted.
At prom, Closs’s friends were very surprised. Her family and teachers also supported what she did.
Her father thought that bringing a cardboard cutout of Danny DeVito to prom was funny, and her mother eventually got on board, even watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” a show featuring DeVito.
At prom, everyone enjoyed her unique date. “When I was giving them my ticket, they asked if Danny had one too,” Closs said.
The principal joked that DeVito was “a little over the age limit for a guest.”
Why Danny DeVito?
Allison Closs considered bringing Bill Nye the Science Guy as her prom date but chose Danny DeVito instead because she’s a big fan of his work.
She also mentioned that YouTuber PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, might have influenced her decision.
PewDiePie often features a cardboard cutout of DeVito in his videos.
“He has this running joke on his channel where, for a while, he had this cardboard cutout of Danny DeVito,” Closs said.
“So it’s just like hanging out in the background of many of his videos and like occasionally drops dirty comments.”
Closs’s story gained attention after a local ABC channel reported about it.
Her video, which included interviews with her parents and scenes with “Danny,” was broadcast on the news and went viral. The story spread, becoming national news.
“I definitely struggled socially in high school,” she said. “And this was my last opportunity to really do something. [My YouTube channel] has really been boosting my confidence and willingness to put myself out there and do something crazy in public. I don’t think I would have been able to do something like this a few years ago.”
The story reached Danny DeVito. He said he was glad he got to be Closs’s date.
“Never been invited to Prom… Happy I got to go,” he said through a publicist. “PS: I spiked the punch!”
In September 2018, Closs was invited to appear on CBS’s “The Talk,” where she met the real Danny DeVito.
“When I saw him, my mouth went completely dry, and I started rolling my tongue in my mouth like some crazy lizard person,” she said.
They hugged, and DeVito joked about her cardboard cutout living in a co-ed dorm.