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According to a new report from Variety, it sounds like Rachel Zegler was about one social media post away from getting a poisoned apple hand-delivered to her door by Mickey Mouse himself. The Snow White star’s unabashed use of social media reportedly angered Disney executives, with whom she already had a strained relationship following 2022’s West Side Story Oscar invite fiasco. One post in particular, in which the actor wrote “and always remember, free palestine” in the same thread she used to promote a Snow White teaser, provided the proverbial nail in the glass coffin.
Mickey Mouse didn’t show up at Zegler’s door, but the next best thing did: Snow White producer Marc Platt. According to Variety, Platt—who has backed countless other productions, including Wicked on both stage and screen—flew to New York “to speak directly” with Zegler about her post. Whatever happened during that conversation seemed not to sway the actor. The post is still up, and a few months later, she set off alarms in the castle once again by posting “Fuck Donald Trump” in response to the president’s election. Platt reportedly “made the case again to Zegler” following the post, although Variety doesn’t specify whether this particular talking involved a plane ride or not. This time, something seemed to have found purchase. Whether or not it was motivated by Platt’s slap on the wrist or Megyn Kelly’s intrusion, Zegler apologized for “let[ting] my emotions get the best of me” and promised to contribute “positively toward a better tomorrow.” In subsequent weeks, she reportedly began working with a Disney-funded “social media guru” to vet posts before the film’s premiere last weekend.
After all that, the film only opened to $86 million internationally against its $270 million budget. Maybe a wish in a well—or perhaps a smaller plane-ticket-that-could-have-been-an-email budget—could help Disney recover some of that lost money.
