Rachel Zegler's Co-Star Ariana DeBose Throws Savage Shade — Then Totally Backtracks When Fans Hate It!

Wow… this is a backtrack only a phenomenally talented dancer could pull off! But let’s rewind for a sec…

As the Snow White live action remake imploded at the box office, much ado was made of the purported controversy surrounding Rachel Zegler. The stories mostly centered on a tweet she wrote saying “Free Palestine”. A source told Variety about producer Marc Platt getting on a private jet and flying to New York City just to tell off the young star in person. He couldn’t convince her to take down the tweet though. She stood firm that it was the right message amid the ongoing death and destruction.

Many online supported Rachel — and saw the Variety piece as a way to blame the poor performance of the movie solely on its young star. Obviously that’s not fair since the majority of people who skipped the film did so because it looked terrible and they’re sick of all the Disney remake sludge.

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One person who was upset about the way public opinion was going? Platt’s nepo baby son! No, not the one he made them cast in Dear Evan Hansen despite looking WAY too old to play a high schooler. The other one. Jonah Platt accidentally confirmed the story about his dad in an angry comment on social media. When someone defended Rachel, he went OFF:

“You really want to do this? Yeah, my dad, the producer of the 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 into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicly for. Free speech does not mean you’re allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions. Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of the colleagues and crew and blue collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.”

His rant went viral as he tried to paint a rich Hollywood producer as some sort of victim for not making a Zoom call. Also, his kids are adults, what does he even mean he “had to leave his family”??

But it’s that last attack on Rachel that’s key here. “Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.”

OK. That’s the backstory. Now that we’ve done the thing, enter Ariana DeBose. She just casually this week posted THIS on her Instagram Story:

We mean… WOW! Ariana co-starred in West Side Story with Rachel, they did that whole press tour together. Doe she agree girl was a narcissist?!

Fans obviously read this as massive shade — and they hit back HARD:

“Ariana DeBose coming out against Rachel Zegler by directly quoting Marc Platt’s less successful son is so messy, my god”

“Ariana DeBose cyberbullying a 23 year old at the big age of 35..”

“ariana debose hating on rachel zegler. girl we all know you are still friends with ansel elgort and you supporting him when all the allegations came out. also you are a zionist. stfu and get a job cause you’ve been doing s**t projects after your oscar”

“West Side Story (2021) will be the peak of Ariana DeBose’s career but not Rachel’s”

“at least those Karen haircuts Ariana DeBose loves make sense now”

“ariana debose i hope you stay getting employed in the worst slop only for the rest of your abysmal pathetic career”

“Ariana DeBose you will NEVER be as talented as Rachel Zegler”

“I have defended Ariana DeBose a lot over the years. Not anymore. She chose the side that viciously and repeatedly attacks a 23-year old for being publicly against the mass murder of 17K children. Rachel Zegler deserved better.”

“Ariana DeBose has been weird for a while, I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. But at one point it starts to become too much. Her Post Oscar career has been pitiful and doing whatever this is…well good luck.”

You can’t blame fans for reading her post as shade. How could it not be? That would require someone else to make Platt’s words into an inspirational quote format, and for Ariana to see it and love it and post it, all while completely deaf to the controversy surrounding her former co-star.

Well… that’s exactly what she’s saying happened. After a day of everyone reading her for filth, she posted an explanation post excusing herself of all accountability:

“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. I have no intention of inserting myself into a news cycle. This is not the first time I’ve posted about narcissism and it probably won’t be the last, but next time I’ll be sure to clarify its origins first.”

Note she didn’t apologize anywhere in there. She also didn’t take a moment to say she doesn’t have bad feelings toward Rachel, or anything like that. So yeah…

Do YOU buy Ariana’s explanation? Or do you think she was totally shading her former co-star? Let us know in the comments (below)!

[Image via MEGA/WENN/20th Century Studios/YouTube.]

The post Rachel Zegler's Co-Star Ariana DeBose Throws Savage Shade — Then Totally Backtracks When Fans Hate It! appeared first on Perez Hilton.