America Ferrera ambushed in Cannes by man diving under her dress

May 16, 2014 6:22 PM PT

Actress America Ferrera was unexpectedly ambushed at the Cannes Film Festival in southern France. As she posed on the red carpet Friday with her “How to Train Your Dragon 2” costars, a man made his way onto the red carpet and crawled under Ferrera’s gown.

She and her fellow actors -- including Cate Blanchett, Kit Harington, Djimon Hounsou and Jay Baruchel -- turned around to find a security team dragging the man away from Ferrera’s dress.

The man was identified as Ukrainian journalist Vitalii Sediuk. And it wasn’t the first time 25-year-old Sediuk was involved in a bizarre celebrity incident.

In January, Sediuk appeared at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. He somehow found his way to “American Hustle” actor Bradley Cooper, wrapped his arms around Cooper’s legs and placed his face in the actor’s nether regions.

Back in February 2013, Sediuk popped up on stage at the Grammys. He nearly ruined Adele’s acceptance speech for solo pop performance. Until, that is, Jennifer Lopez (yes, Jenny from the Block) kicked him to the curb. The incident landed Sediuk a night in jail.

Weeks after that, Sediuk crashed the Academy Awards. He made an entrance wearing a Bjork-style swan dress accessorized by a pail full of replica Oscar statues. But that’s about as far as he got -- police prevented his access and let him off with a warning.

And before that, in May 2012, Sediuk surfaced at the Moscow premiere of “Men in Black 3,” where he not only got in Will Smith’s bubble, he kissed him too. Smith immediately shoved Sediuk away. As Smith made his way down the red carpet that night, he told one reporter “[Sediuk] is lucky I didn’t sucker-punch him.”

The 30-year-old Ferrera, who also stars in the upcoming drama “X/Y,” hadn’t given any social-media attention to the incident as of Friday afternoon in the U.S.

Ferrera did post a photo of what appears to be a “How to Train Your Dragon 2” roundtable event before the red carpet protocol.

“No big deal guys,” she wrote. “Just me and Cate Blanchett at Cannes. #freakingtheEFFout #surrealmoment.”