Rachel Zegler Apologizes For Hateful Remarks
Well, that was fast. Two days ago, Rachel Zegler, the star of Disney’s live-action Snow White remake who seems to want everyone to hate her, took to Instagram to voice her disgust with Donald Trump’s win in last week’s Presidential election. After two paragraphs of whining about how her imaginary daughter won’t have abortion rights (which is either a lie or a massively misinformed assumption) and a pledge of solidarity with other people who are crying, Zegler said that she hopes the Americans who voted for Trump “never find peace.” People were disgusted, but I doubt anyone was surprised; this is the kind of hate Hollywood has been spewing at the common man for the past couple of decades, and we’ve long made peace (sorry, Rachel) with their hatred of us. We don’t do as we’re told by the pretty people, we don’t accept their smug moralizing with a grateful smile, and we don’t even see their unwatchable movies anymore.
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, the day after she wished unhappiness on anyone who doesn’t fall in line with her (in the name of democracy and anti-fascism, I’m sure, though she didn’t even bother with the phony buzzwords), Rachel Zegler made another Instagram post apologizing for her hateful message. She talked about hatred and division and how she doesn’t want to be a part of that, and she even recognized people’s right to disagree with her; how magnanimous of her. Is this sincere? Of course not; it’s worded like it was run through a public relations team and crafted to make her look apologetic without giving in to the people Hollywood hates. (Notice there’s no mention of Trump or his supporters, just general feel-good sentiments.) But the fact that she even bothered to publish this and did it so quickly suggests that the backlash over her initial post was huge, and she was told she needed to take it back as soon as possible.
I think everyone knows (or strongly assumes, let’s say) that Disney told her to apologize. Rachel Zegler doesn’t seem self-aware enough to realize she needs to smooth over an insult this big on her own, regardless of how badly it damages her image, which is already somewhere between government-issued school lunch and gout. Snow White’s forecast is so bad that Bob Iger didn’t mention it during the last Disney quarterly earnings call (or the one before that). They’re already looking at a big loss on that film, particularly with the delays and reshoots; they don’t need their unlikable star telling half the audience she wants them to be miserable (which, in fairness, may have been her way of asking them to see the movie). This isn’t the first time Disney’s had to go through this with Zegler; remember last year, when they sat her down with Halle Bailey – who actually is likable – to make her look somewhat personable and appealing? Unfortunately, Disney is dealing with someone who refuses to learn from her mistakes and, left to her own devices, doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her. It would be an admirable quality if she weren’t such a nasty little diva.
Regardless of individual actresses like Zegler, the quick response suggests that Disney understands they can’t keep antagonizing the other side of the political divide, and again, I come back to the election. This really seems to have been a rude awakening for Hollywood because they were forced out of their bubble and into the real world, where the majority not only disagrees with them but won’t be shamed into doing what they say. Look at the mass exodus of left-wing personalities from X in the last few days, with their Dear Diary goodbye letters and farewell mudslinging. They’re leaving because they know they’re outnumbered, and too many people have no problem pushing back on their insane messaging. Yesterday, Whoopi Goldberg claimed that Holtermann’s Bakery, an old bakery in Staten Island, where I live, discriminated against her because of her political beliefs. The backlash was instantaneous; the community came to the bakery’s defense, sending in money, making orders, donating food to local schools and firehouses, and telling Whoopi what they thought of her phony story, while local politicians held a press conference outside Holtermann’s and demanded Whoopi apologize. (I took this personally; I have many fond memories of going to Holtermann’s with my dad, and I don’t appreciate some high-on-her-own-fumes celebrity trying to tear the place down.) I have no idea what Whoopi’s response to this will be if she even has one, but I do know that ABC is planning to put a Trump-supporting conservative on The View to balance out Whoopi and the rest of the rabidly left-wing panel. People have had enough, and Trump winning so decisively has shown them they’re not alone… far from it. I don’t expect a Whoopi Goldberg or Rachel Zegler to care, but it looks like the people who pay them are starting to.
Let us know what you think about Rachel Zegler’s apology and Whoopi’s attempt to smear Holtermann’s Bakery in the comments!
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