Ireland stages their own lookalike contest for Paul Mescal

If you look like Paul Mescal, today could have been your lucky day.

By Emma Keates  |  November 7, 2024 | 3:57pm
Photo: Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images
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Ireland stages their own lookalike contest for Paul Mescal

Two weeks ago, dozens of fake Timothée Chalamets (and one real one) took to the streets of Manhattan to find the Timothée Chalametiest Timothée Chalamet of all. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t the real one.) Today, at least six fake Paul Mescals (and no real one, unfortunately) did the same in Ireland, the actor’s home country. On Saturday, a horde of fake Harry Styleses will allegedly take London (real one still TBD). Even the lookalike competitions are starting to have their own lookalikes now. When will it end!

Irish independent radio station Today FM shared a video of all the fake Pauls (and their teeny tiny shorts) in Dublin today. Unlike the New York edition, it seems like no Pauls were arrested for the making of the bit, but one—real name Jack Wall O’Reilly—did win a giant check for “€20 or three pints.” 

“I’m very proud, it’s been a good buzz,” Wall O’Reilly told the Irish Independent (via The Guardian), patting himself on the back for having won “the genetic Paul Mescal lottery.” “I think there’s a Paul Mescal in all of us,” he said in his victory speech. 

In his own red carpet interview for Gladiator II, also shared by Today FM, the real Mescal confirmed that there was “still a lad from Ireland” inside of him too. “This is mad,” Mescal said of the film premiere, not the competition, although the following could probably apply to both: “There’s very little else to say about it other than I just never expected something like this to happen, so I’m kind of just floating at the moment.” 

This is all very wholesome, but don’t tune out just yet, drama fiends. There may still be some legal action coming down the pike. The Guardian notes that the giant check was branded with the Lidl logo, but the supermarket does not appear to be affiliated with the competition—in any official capacity, at least. Whoever’s on the hook for that money had better hope he bears at least a passing resemblance to Harry Styles and can go and cash out at that competition this weekend.

 
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