Again, stop directing any negativity towards Rachel Zegler, a 20-year-old actress who is the lead of West Side Story. She wanted to go to the Oscars to support her first film, a film she is extremely proud of, a film which was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture. It’s insane that she wasn’t given a ticket by Disney. It’s insane that Oscar producers didn’t invite her to be a presenter before this sh-tstorm. And do not go off on poor Disney not being able to afford a delay in shooting Snow White because Zegler wants to fly from London to LA for the biggest awards show. It’s DISNEY. They can truly work around her for a week, or give everyone a week off for the Oscars. In any case, a deal was struck and now Zegler will be a presenter on Sunday. It’s hard to imagine that would have happened if she hadn’t spoken out about the snub.
Following an internet firestorm over the revelation that Rachel Zegler, the star of best picture Oscar nominee West Side Story, had not been invited to attend the 2022 Oscars on Sunday night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the up-and-comer to be a presenter at the ceremony, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The 20-year-old Latina actress is currently in London shooting Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White. THR hears that efforts are being undertaken to rearrange the film’s shooting schedule to enable Zegler to be at the Oscars.
In response to Zegler’s posting, social media users erupted in outrage, as did notables from One Day at a Time co-creator Gloria Calderón Kellett to the original West Side Story‘s Riff, Russ Tamblyn, with many remarking on the oddity of non-industry types like Tony Hawk and Shaun White having been asked to present on the show, but not the leading lady and public face of a best picture Oscar nominee.
To be sure, Zegler was not personally nominated this year (neither were Hawk or White), so the Academy was under no obligation to invite her and Disney was under no obligation to allocate one of its tickets for her. (Each nominee and presenter is offered a pair of tickets, and each studio gets an allotment, though fewer tickets were distributed this year due to COVID-19 precautions.) But many thought both the organization and the studio should have made sure that the star of a best picture nominee was at the ceremony in one capacity or another.
Again, Zegler is the lead AND she wanted to go. Of course there have been moments when the lead actors of nominated films haven’t gone to the Oscars, but when that happens, it’s almost always the actors’ choice because they have something else going on. Those actors are always *invited*. Rachel Zegler was not invited until a full 48 hours of sh-tty “debate” about whether the lead of West Side Story should go to the Oscars. Anyway, this issue was solved by Oscar producers and Disney. Disney will work out the film schedule for Snow White and the Oscar producers worked out her invite as a presenter. Ugh.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
-
- MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA – SEPTEMBER 14: Actress Rachel Zegler arrives at the New York Premiere Of Fox Searchlight Pictures’ ‘The Eyes Of Tammy Faye’ held at the SVA Theater on September 14, 2021 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.,Image: 632205951, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Rachel Zegler, Credit line: Kevin Lian / Image Press Agency / Avalon
-
- Rachel Zegler attends The Eyes of Tammy Faye New York Premiere, held at the SVA Theatre in New York City, Tuesday, September 14, 2021,Image: 632221574, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Rachel Zegler, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
-
- Rachel Zegler at Mark Kermode in 3D at the BFI Southbank on Monday, Mar. 7, 2022 at BFI Southbank .,Image: 666908320, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
-
- Rachel Zegler on the red carpet for the EE British Academy Film Awards 2022 (BAFTAs) on Sunday, Mar. 13, 2022 at The Royal Albert Hall .,Image: 669436713, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
-
- Rachel Zegler attends the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2022 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. Sunday 13th March 2022. -,Image: 669604692, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: EE British Academy Film Awards in 2022, Credit line: JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
Disney is being run into the ground by a bunch of buffoons.
She’s a young actor with no connections to the old boys club. She used her social media network instead! Nothing wrong with that. If she was a guy she would have been praised for standing up for herself.
Edit- wasn’t meant to be a specific reply, just a general comment
This is the same company that let Shonda Rhimes walk over a $175 ticket to Disneyland. Good business decisions are not their strong suit.
No, it isn’t. You would think that as long as they have been in the business they would have learned by now. I appreciate the fact that the niece of Walt, and co-owner of Disney, has been openly critical of the entire brand. Another example of Disney not being on the right side of history.
No negativity from my corner! You have to stand up for yourself to get ahead in this industry. All she did was answer a question on social media honestly. People reacted, and the Mouse scurried.
I can’t believe she was not invited as a presenter. Having her there as a presenter would be the perfect solution to whatever limited ticket issues prevented her from getting an invite or Disney not wanting to deal with getting her a ticket etc and it makes perfect sense overall – she was the lead in one of the movies nominated for Best Picture, and she’s young and is on her way to being a big star, so why not bring her on as a presenter? You would think Disney would have pushed for THAT.
I guess now its been worked out but its sad it had to work out like this.
That’s what I didn’t get either – why wasn’t she invited as a presenter??? They do that sort of thing ALL the time, so that the stars of the big nominated films are there. We certainly don’t need people like Kate Hudson or John Travolta presenting yet again.
Also, how nice to invite her 4 days before the event. Hopefully Disney is pulling strings to get her a fabulous gown and jewelry, and hair/makeup team.
They better f**king be!
Shaun White is a presenter, for god’s sakes. He’s not the only presenter who isn’t even an actor!!
So, I guess the story wasn’t true that everyone was touting yesterday – about how she couldn’t get away from the set in London and how it would cost a bazillion billion dollars to fly her to LA for the award show.
Eh, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was part of the original calculation and why Disney didn’t push for her to be invited or to be included as a presenter, but once it became public the calculation changed bc someone realized how bad it looked. so it’s still a pain for her to take the few days off or whatever but that pain is less than the pain of her missing the Oscars at this point.
It’s probably true to some extent that there are costs associated with moving the schedule around, but Disney could have planned for it and figured out how to keep the production schedule moving around her attending the Oscars. Clearly however much it will cost isn’t high enough to outweigh the negative publicity they’re getting though, so that was a big miscalculation on Disney’s part.
I was infuriated by what was thrown at her in yesterday’s thread. Felt like Disney PR points were being brought into CB! Some of it was mean-spirited!
Listen, will non-nominated Jamie Dornan be at the Oscars? Will Emilia Jones and Marlee Maitland? They should be and so should have Rachel Zegler from the start. Even if she is working, she should have been invited and given the chance to say, we can’t work it out to be there. The snub was not inviting her.
The Academy producers & Disney absolutely could have made this happen from the start if they wanted to.
I don’t know if she’s a lovely person or not, but in a community of today’s leading young actors, where like half are product of industry nepotism, Rachel’s success to lead a film is something the Academy and Disney should WANT to highlight (omg she is the lead in your next major live-action princess movie ffs!). And for us Latinos, feels like just another time Hollywood falls short.
The irony is that she is the biggest cheerleader for the fellow cast and the film on social media. Not just Spielberg and DeBose, but especially highlighting Mike Faist and David Alvarez not getting noms.
yes I wonder what it is about Zegler that brought the “i work at BOA” levels of venom.
She stood up for herself. That’s all it takes for folks like that previous thread’s “I, Disney Employee” genius to try and smear her as trouble.
Well hope its not too awkward for her in the industry moving forward.You know Hollywood is a vengeful and petty cesspool.
This! I’m happy for her. She deserves to go. But part of me is worried that she’ll pay for this later on in her career. I’m glad she fought for it but if it were me and I was worried about longevity at the beginning of my career, I would wonder if this fight was worth it.
But she didn’t fight to go, it was the fans. All she said was she wasn’t invited so she would be watching from home. The social media uproar came on its own. I didn’t see where she told people to go on the warpath or that she was mad about not getting invited. But you’re right Hollywood is petty and vengeful.
@ MsIam, yes, she didn’t force Disney to find her a ticket and Disney only responded after the bad publicity, rightfully deserved, but Hollywood is not a forgiving group. But if she was a man everyone would ignore the fact that Disney faced any backlash and would not have been harmed in their career. Give it up to white men in the industry as they are still top dog!! Hopefully she won’t suffer any unnecessary consequences. I am in agreement with you but I still think that it’s still very white and misogynistic in Hollywood no matter the decade. The Oscars are some of the worst offenders too!
@Noki Very possibly. But also possibly, I would the denounication will really be easy for those victims and people are going to be encouraged to speak up. Also in the near future, there will be a lot more women in power and the young of today will be the adults of tomorrow and hopefully there will be a change in minds and behaviours we wont see that happen.
It wasn’t a snub, she was WORKING. If Disney had wanted her there… she would have been there in the first place. THE END.
I think the point people had was that Disney SHOULD have wanted her there. It should have wanted to make sure the lead of a a Best Picture nominee should be there, especially since she is starring in one of their upcoming live action remakes which are big money makers for them. None of this should have been necessary.
EXACTLY AnneL. PROMOTING the film being nominated by having the lead there who IS valuable as a young talented latina who would bring much needed COLOR to the roster is exactly what they should have wanted. Instead they kept her working and away from the party.
She used the resources she had at her disposal and the old guard of Disney is going to have to understand this is the landscape where things are fought now. She’s not afraid to put the facts out there and say what she wants.
Eh. If she’s mid-filming, it’s not just about her though. This will mean altering the work schedules of hundreds of people. I get that she was disappointed about not being invited, but what about other folks working in London who might now have to spend an extra week away from their families, or bow out of other jobs because this one runs long?
@Kirsten that might be true but if Disney had been on top of it from the beginning they could have found the optimal way to have her attend with minimal disruption to the production. I’m sure it’s not as easy when they are scrambling to fix the situation with a few days notice, but that’s on Disney making a bad call IMO.
I am more with Kirsten here, if they are following any protocols for covid all ‘optimal planning’ would be is a scheduled 2-3 week break while they wait for their star to go to an event with tons of unmasked people? People need to work and get paid if they are using their time and skills to work on this film when they could be doing/working on something else that doesn’t need to stop or change production entirely to support the whims of their works main character. I am glad she gets to go, but it is literally at the expense and frustrations of the working man. I don’t think this was an oversite on disney, even if they could afford it there are so many more people than the ceo and the star involved in the process. I think what Rachel did is very sneaky, not necessarily a bad thing, but I don’t think she was snubbed either.
Disney has always been a ‘good ‘ole boys,’ network. They’ve grown, sure, but in the early 2000’s I did a full blown composition, thesis, whatever you care to call it for a friend, and trust me, Disney can do anything and everything they want. They’d move a mountain if doing so would secure another half century.
Chill @Marie
Some of you really shining with your racism despite trying to keep it lowkey. The anti-latina vibe jumps out.
Nice of Disney to “allow” her to promote both the film that’s nominated AND, no doubt, the upcoming Snow White. In all of the tweets, she’s very careful to be a “team player” and total professional.
There was talk about Rita Moreno ( who originally played the same role in WSS) attending as well. I don’t know if Moreno is coming for sure, but if it’s even a slim possibility, I don’t know why the Academy and the broadcastors wouldn’t move heaven and earth to get a photo of “the two Marias” together at some point.
Rita Moreno wasn’t the original Maria. Natalie Wood was. Rita Moreno played Anita.
If the cast was invited, Ansel Elgort could have waked the red carpet. Disney and Spielberg do not want that kind of press so they figured it was best to not have anyone attend. Having Rachel present is also a way of getting around this. They don’t have to send anyone else.
It has NOTHING to do with money. Disney’s net worth $97 billion.
Exactly this. They have been protecting Elgort from scrutiny from the get. It’s pretty nauseating.
The leading lady certainly shouldn’t have to take an L for that creep and the cronies covering for him but this is exactly how Hollywood is and what it’s trying to scramble back to.
I realize it isn’t Rachel’s fault, as all she did was comment honestly about a situation, but it sort of sucks that now, leading up to Oscar weekend, all the talk is about Rachel instead of her nominated co-star, Ariana DeBose, an immensely talented queer woman of color. I hope Ariana and her performance don’t become a footnote due to invitation-gate.
Hopefully Ariana will take home the statue and the spotlight will shift back to her. She’ll be interviewed on the red carpet plenty as well, I’m sure.
They’re both crazy talented and I’m happy both will be there. Fingers crossed for Ariana.
Well, Disney is not a beginner, so I think the whole thing benefitted Rachel.
Lets be honest, they wanted her to happen the whole time, she didnt happen….. now its on. “Everyone” talks about her.
Fans asked her on her social media about the snub? Please… 🙂
She is at the Oscars, as it was planned all along. But with a bang.
So, well done, I am happy she is there. Whatever shady promotion techniques they used, it evidently worked.
The WSS remake didnt make her a big star as expected, no-one knew her name which was not good for the Snow White production and promotion.
Disney, well played.
Disney has shown repeatedly that they’re skinflints. Didn’t they nickel and dime Shonda Rhimes over tickets not long ago; they refused to pay Alan Dean Foster and several authors their due despite the former having cancer and needing to pay medical bills; they just tried to shaft Scarlett Johansson over Black Widow; keep kicking Pixar’s representation films straight to streaming; laid of tonnes of employees off after endangering them by trying to keep their parks open at the height of covid; and the recent scandal with Don’t Say Gay.
Besides that, this whole debacle is clearly just the director trying to keep the Ansel Elgort scandal out of the limelight. It’s been profoundly disappointing watching how they’ve tried to cover for that guy. Seems his leading lady got pushed to the back for the same reason. The excuses being made to justify her being iced out of – potentially – her only Oscar invite are ridiculous. She could literally do a remote Zoom presentation if it was that tight. But one day to fly her over and back is hardly unheard of.