Though Disney has had a wobbly couple of days, and despite an equally tumultuous future in tow, it looks ready to navigate the chaotic waters — this time, anyhow.
After leveling its bazooka at Governor Ron DeSantis, the House of Mouse has earned yet another supporter in the form of former professional basketball player Dwayne Wade, who let the Florida Man know which side of the argument he stands on. Meanwhile, The Little Mermaid’s dead-eyed Flounder and Sebastian joined the list of “what should we eat tonight” at the Met Gala 2023’s red carpet.
Also, the ongoing WGA strike has finally hit the land of entertainment content. While Disney is primed to weather the same — even if it bypasses the 100 days record set by the 2007 writers’ strike — in case it was planning to pretend that the strike doesn’t exist, the protestors have ensured that the House of Mouse fails in this task.
Disney earns another anti-Ron DeSantis ally as Dwayne Wade decides to ‘step on the side of acceptance’
The Florida governor isn’t exactly projecting a good look or attracting tons of new fans in his crusade to crush Disney for its continuing support for LGBTQ rights, but the House of Mouse is steadily gaining more vocal supporters who are not shying away from solidarity with the company, and demonstrating the disappointment DeSantis’ actions provoked.
The latest celeb to join the winning side is Dwayne Wade, who recently marked his presence at Met Gala 2023. Apart from nailing the event’s theme, Wade also won bonus points for openly sharing what he thinks of DeSantis’ “war on woke,” just weeks after it was reported that the NBA player is set to leave Florida in light of the numerous anti-LGBTQ laws being passed in the state.
“I don’t know him. But I do know men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t. I do know that when our children feel accepted. That 43 percent of our children that feel accepted from their parents, from the world, it lowers the death rate. Suicide is high in the trans community. It’s high in youth. And so, I’m going to step on the side of acceptance and I’m not going even go to the other side. I’m just going to focus on acceptance.”
Disney set to semi-smoothly live through the WGA strike, but having no writers for its shows isn’t the only trouble it has to face
A month after they originally planned the strike, Hollywood writers are finally starting their protests on May 2 after the months of negotiations bore no fruit for the Writers Guild of America. Its first and foremost impact is going to be on late-night shows that get their scripts written on a tight, last-minute deadline. Then will come the major networks, which will have to put a hold on their ongoing shows, as well as the ones coming back from hiatus, until this strike ends.
Streaming platforms, on the other hand, will be the very last to feel the strike’s effects. Their upcoming shows like Ahsoka, Loki, Percy Jackson, etc., have been already shot, and we are expecting that the ones being currently filmed (Daredevil Born Again) have a finalized script in place. So, even though the pause button will be hit on shows still being written — like the second season of Percy Jackson, for instance — Disney Plus is not running out of content anytime soon.
But if the company was planning to silently ride through this tornado, those schemes have been foiled by the schedule of the strike. As reported by Variety, the WGA has decided on picketing locations including the headquarters of Peacock NewFront and Netflix in New York for the East Coast-based membership, and the likes of Disney, Amazon, Netflix, Sony, and other premises on the West Coast. And this is just the schedule for the first two weeks.
Halle Bailey left horrified as her The Little Mermaid co-stars join the Met Gala as potential dishes
The Little Mermaid has been a dicey card, so far. Even though it is being predicted to bring in a decent haul at the box office, it has been attracting attention for all the wrong reasons, from facing racist backlash to its cast, to drowning in genuine criticism for Ursula’s makeup, as well as Flounder and Sebastian’s severely disappointing animated presentation that led to justified “I-want-to-gouge-my-eyes-out” reactions.
But no matter how much the character designers may have massacred Flounder and Sebastian, and left fans shaking their heads in dismay (and in an attempt to shake lose the pressing need to pitch their creator into the deepest parts of Hell), it doesn’t justify them being turned into Flounder Piccata and Open-Faced Crab Empanadas. (OK, OK, we know we sound like hypocrites after making it evident what we think about Disney’s attempt at giving them a life-like depiction.)
Well, at least Halle Bailey will be heroically jumping in to save the two, at least based on her reaction to the question during the Met Gala red carpet about who she would eat first, if she had to.
