“Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged,” DeBose posted. Though it was without quote attribution, commenters very quickly informed the Oscar winner that it was originally written by Jonah Platt, the eldest son of Marc Platt, aka the film, theater, and television producer who recently made headlines for his role in the Snow White controversies.
Last week, Variety reported on the “fiasco” behind the film and suggested that its star’s social media presence—notably, her denunciation of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the re-election of Donald Trump—caused trouble for Disney, posed a security risk to her co-star, Gal Gadot, invited a lot of bad press, and ultimately, “trashed the beloved original.” The story’s most explosive claim was that Platt flew to New York to reprimand Zegler about her posts about Palestine.
Backlash was justifiably swift, with many users on Twitter pointing out the absurdity of a Jewish man (and a person who produced a controversial documentary about October 7 and has openly discussed convincing the Wicked cast not to sign the Artists4Ceasefire petition) chastising a grown woman about being publicly anti-genocide. Naturally, Jonah thought it wise to pop off in his father’s defense in the comment section. On Instagram, he replied to one user’s comment, writing in part: “My dad, the producer of enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20-year-old employee for dragging her personal politics in the middle of promoting the movie, for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for.” He then concluded the rant that it was Zegler’s “narcissism” that “hijacked” conversation of the film at the expense of “colleagues, crew, and blue-collar workers” and “shouldn’t be coddled or encouraged.”
DeBose, who starred in West Side Story alongside Zegler, quickly removed the post and issued a defense on her Instagram stories.
“I post quotes all the time and thought this one was meaningful. Will fully cop to the fact I did not do any research on where this quote came from, nor did I know of the connection until it was pointed out to me,” she wrote. “I have no intention of inserting myself into a news cycle. This is not the first time I’ve posted about dealing with narcissism and it probably won’t be the last, but next time I’ll be sure to clarify its origins first.”
Damn. Seems like DeBose deals with narcissists a lot…
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- Cardi B claims Offset has not only threatened her life, but also stalked and harassed her and her new boyfriend since their split. [Us Weekly]
- Morgan Wallen is now hawking “Get Me To God’s Country” merch. [TMZ]
- In a post that I initially assumed to be an April Fool’s joke, Jonathan Majors has been announced as the next guest on Keke Palmer‘s podcast. The topic of conversation? Accountability…[Pop Crave]
- A win for the “Reality Reckoning” set: former Real Housewife of New York City, Leah McSweeney, can proceed with her lawsuit against Bravo. [Page Six]
- Wendy Williams wants to go to Paris and fall in love when her conservatorship is terminated. [People]
- Paul Feig has another movie about two fucked up white women on the way, The Housemaid, which co-stars Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. [Deadline]
- Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s take on the bride of Frankenstein sounds insane. [The Hollywood Reporter]
- Well, this is way more than I ever needed to know about Maury Povich and Connie Chung. [Daily Mail]
