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For better or worse, the name on everybody\u2019s lips is Rachel Zegler.<\/strong> The West Side Story<\/em> star has found herself at the cross section of internet discourse and Hollywood gossip after her latest film, Snow White<\/a>,<\/em> flopped at the box office, earning a dismal $43 million domestically and just $87 million globally in its opening weekend after reportedly costing at least $350 million<\/a> to make and market.<\/p>\n Entertainment insiders are always primed to find somebody to blame for a failure on this scale. In Snow White<\/em>\u2019s case, that scapegoat seems to be Snow White herself. But try as those voices might to implicate Zegler, the discourse seems to be having the opposite effect: The more that comes to light about Zegler and the Snow White<\/em> debacle, the better 23-year-old Zegler looks to many observers.<\/p>\n Zegler and Snow White<\/em>\u2019s difficulties began long before<\/a> the film hit theaters on March 21. From the instant her casting was announced in June 2021, she was subject to racism and vitriol from conservative-leaning Disney fans, who were irate that Zegler, a Latina, had been chosen to play Snow White. Things got thornier when the outspoken Zegler called her film\u2019s ancient source material \u201cweird\u201d and said that the remake would take a \u201cdifferent approach\u201d to the classic fairytale\u2014and messier still when Zegler expressed her solidarity with Palestine in the wake of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n That was reportedly the straw that broke Disney\u2019s back. Tatiana Siegel,<\/strong> Variety<\/em>\u2019s executive editor of film and media, reported this week that Snow White<\/em> producer Marc Platt<\/strong> flew to New York to talk with Zegler about the ramifications of a tweet she posted<\/a> right after thanking fans for watching the film\u2019s first trailer: \u201cand always remember, free palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe actress, whose relationship with the studio began to unravel in 2022 during a contentious West Side Story<\/em> awards season campaign and continued as she trashed the beloved original Snow White,<\/em> stood her ground, and the post remained,\u201d wrote Siegel. Per her report, Disney was forced to pay for additional security for Snow White<\/em> star Gal Gadot,<\/strong> an Israeli who showed support for her country in the wake of the October 7 attacks, after Zegler\u2019s tweet. According to Siegel, Disney also hired a \u201csocial media guru\u201d to vet all of Zegler\u2019s posts after she disparaged Donald Trump<\/strong> following his 2024 reelection, suggesting that the studio viewed her as a liability\u2014and a costly one at that. (Vanity Fair<\/em> has reached out to Disney for comment.)<\/p>\n By the time Snow White<\/em> premiered, Disney seemed to be doubling down on that narrative. At the very least, it was putting a conspicuous distance between itself and its star. The Snow White<\/em> premiere was scaled down to an afternoon event that was closed to the press. People<\/em> reported<\/a> that a source with knowledge of the situation said this was standard practice for Disney\u2019s family films, though Moana 2<\/em> was given a traditional premiere party<\/a> just a few months earlier. Unnamed sources speculated that Disney was unhappy with Zegler<\/a> specifically. \u201cThe reality is Rachel Zegler should not be playing Snow White,\u201d one anonymous source from another studio told Vulture<\/em><\/a> ahead of the premiere.<\/p>\n Regardless of Disney\u2019s alleged feelings, Zegler has received plenty of support in the wake of Snow White<\/em>\u2019s failure (and the subsequent finger-pointing). After the Variety<\/em> story went live, Zegler trended on social media, with many fans applauding her courage. \u201cRachel Zegler RULES and so obviously has a lifetime of incredible roles & performances ahead of her,\u201d wrote film critic and podcaster David Ehrlich<\/strong> on X<\/a>. Even her detractors have faced swift internet backlash. Actor Jonah Platt,<\/strong> son of Snow White<\/em> producer Marc, accused Zegler<\/a> on Instagram of \u201cdragging her personal politics\u201d into promoting the movie and, as a result, damaging the movie\u2019s box office potential. Zegler fans raked Platt<\/a> so thoroughly over the coals for his comment that he deleted it. Zegler\u2019s pro-Palestine tweet remains up on her X page.<\/p>\n Fans aren\u2019t the only ones publicly supporting Zegler. Actress Melissa Barrera,<\/strong> who was fired from Scream 7<\/em> for allegedly engaging in \u201chate speech\u201d<\/a> while expressing her own support for Palestine, shared an Instagram post to her Stories that said that far from making Zegler look difficult or radical, the whisper campaign actually made her look \u201ccool as hell and full of integrity.\u201d On Bluesky,<\/a> journalist Mark Harris<\/strong> described Siegel\u2019s story as a \u201chit job\u201d and accused Disney of waging \u201ca campaign\u201d to blame Snow White<\/em>\u2019s failure squarely on Zegler\u2019s shoulders. \u201cIt is very clearly an attempt to blame the movie\u2019s failure on her expressed politics,\u201d Harris wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s astonishingly graceless, and it\u2019s not honest.\u201d By Thursday morning, over 50 other journalists had signed an open letter<\/a> to Variety<\/em> strongly condemning Siegel\u2019s article. (Vanity Fair<\/em> has reached out to Siegel, as well as Zegler, for comment.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n