Most of us wait with bated breath for the inevitable "now it can be told" stories about the corrupt efforts to cover up Joe Biden's dementia by the White House. In the meantime, we can warm up with a more enjoyable and (slightly) less enraging reveal in Hollywood.

Now that the live-action remake of Snow White has opened to disastrous reviews, all of the media outlets that got locked out of its "premiere" can get the skinny from their Disney sources. Variety lands the first punch in revealing the efforts that the House of Mouse put into keeping Rachel Zegler quiet as the film's launch neared -- and the impact her comments had on her co-star Gal Gadot:

On Aug. 12, 2024, three days after Rachel Zegler hit the stage at Disney’s D23 fan event to introduce the first official trailer of “Snow White,” she thanked supporters effusively in an X post for driving the teaser to 120 million views in 24 hours. One minute later, she added an afterthought in the same thread: “and always remember, free palestine.”

That addendum, which amassed 8.8 million views, nearly four times the number for the initial post, quickly made the rounds, with many inside the studio expressing shock that the “Snow White” star would commingle the promotion of its $270 million tentpole with any kind of political statement. A Disney executive raised the studio’s concerns with Zegler’s team, while the film’s producer Marc Platt flew to New York to speak directly with her. But the actress, whose relationship with the studio began to unravel in 2022 during a contentious “West Side Story” awards season campaign and continued as she trashed the beloved original “Snow White,” stood her ground, and the post remained. Behind the scenes, death threats toward Zegler’s co-star Gal Gadot, who is Israeli, spiked, and Disney had to pay for additional security for the mother of four. 

Has that been reported previously? I certainly hadn't heard anything about it, nor did Christian Toto, who covers Hollywood more closely.  Christian accuses Variety of burying a lede here, and the "legacy media" of ignoring it altogether:

We’re now learning a much bigger movie star, Gal Gadot of “Snow White” fame, had to beef up security measures in recent months. The news is getting mostly ignored in the press.

Why? Journalists can’t pin this one on Musk, Trump or other right-leaning figure. Plus, the likely threat comes from the far Left, the same group shouting “Free Palestine” and harassing Jews across college campuses.

Indeed. It also would force the Protection Racket Media to focus on the contrast between Zegler and Gadot. Zegler has spent well over a year portraying herself as a victim of supposed 'haters' while inadvertently (?) putting her co-star at risk. Remarkably, Gadot has remained a team player during this period, keeping her mouth shut about her co-star, but this reveal makes that effort even more remarkable. Sure sounds like Zegler's posts stirred up a few poisoned apples among her followers and sent them to her co-star as an unexpected curse.

And yet, even after that -- when Zegler refused to retract her "free Palestine" statement and its arguable jab at Gadot -- Disney didn't act to control the social-media stream of the starlet it promoted to the Hollywood A-list. That led Zegler to share repeated comments about left-wing politics, telling followers that if they didn't vote for Kamala Harris, "I don't need your business." She later posted a message hoping that Trump and his supporters "never know peace," and just to make sure the point got across, added "F*** Donald Trump," not exactly Disney-princess language.

Variety reports that Disney intervened more strenuously at that point. Zegler later offered a public apology of the Forrest Gump "It's just that Johnson and the g*****d war" variety, and now one has to wonder just how sincere this was in reality:

“Hi everyone, I would like to sincerely apologize for the election post I shared on my Instagram last week. I let my emotions get the best of me,” Zegler wrote on Instagram. “Hatred and anger have caused us to move further and further away from peace and understanding, and I am sorry I contributed to the negative discourse.”

She continued, “This week has been emotional for so many of us, but I firmly believe that everyone has the right to their opinion, even when it differs from my own. I am committed to contributing positively toward a better tomorrow.”

That took place in mid-November. According to Variety, only then did Disney appoint "minders" to vet Zegler's social-media posts:

Disney had had enough, given that the star was signaling to half the potential audience of an already troubled film plagued by costly reshoots to stay home. Platt made the case again to Zegler. After a back and forth, she began working with a social media guru paid for by Disney to vet any posts before the film’s March 21 bow. Disney declined comment. Zegler did not respond to a request for comment.

Small wonder, then, that Disney excluded the media from the "premiere." Zegler couldn't be trusted to maintain message discipline, and everyone knew it. 

At least we finally got an answer to this question: is there any such thing as bad publicity? Indubitably, and the box office makes that pretty clear, according to the analyst Variety interviewed:

“They say all press is good press, but in ‘Snow White’s’ case, they were unabashedly wrong,” says box office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “Too much negative controversy surrounded this film for years, and it didn’t help that the reviews were subpar, likely rendering this latest live-action adventure to D+ for many potential ticket buyers. A possible saving grace? A feeble marketplace where ‘Snow White’ could stay awhile — as many family films have — despite the lackluster debut.”

You’d think Disney would already have learned that lesson, even just from Zegler. It’s not as though her string of bon mots started with the election, after all. Two years ago, she — and Gadot to a lesser extent — insisted on lecturing potential audiences as to their lack of sufficient judgment in still enjoying the original “weird” Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with its “stalker” prince and old-fashioned heroine who longs for love rather than “being the ruler she knows she can be.” The backlash to those remarks launched reshoots and rewrites that added tens of millions of dollars to an already bloated budget, an investment that now looks akin to the money-disposal scene from The Dark Knight:

Update: Actually, the late Heath Ledger's line seems almost like the best analysis of Disney's corporate strategy these days: "It's not about money. It's about sending a message." 

Anyway, now it can be told, or something. But maybe not all of it, not just yet. Bock is correct that Snow White still has the box office mainly to itself the next couple of weeks. If ticket sales rebound, perhaps these inside sources will remain mostly discreet. If not, however, get ready for Disney insiders to really start laying this disaster entirely onto Zegler, as Disney execs start running for cover. Zegler may want to cut loose from Disney’s media minders in the near future, because a conflict of interest is looming ... if it has not already arrived.