genre pop

Hollywood can be a very lonely place. Whether you’re at the bottom trying to crawl your way up to the middle, or at the top looking down on all the places you’ve been, it’s not alway easy to find people who can relate, and embrace, who you really are.

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Snow White star Rachel Zegler knows that journey all too well, and now that she’s earning high praise for her title role in the live action remake of the classic Disney tale, the West Side Story veteran has opened up to Allure in a cover story about all the fellow A-listers who have had her back over the years.

“She reached out to me — kind of apropos of nothing — and was like, ‘If you need anything, I am here,’” Zegler, 23, said of Ariana Grande’s generosity. “She is so deeply kind. She has gone through so much in the public eye, and I have always really, really admired her courage in the face of all of that.”

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Among the other women who have stepped up to offer support according to Zegler are actor and activist Jameela Jamil, who she considers to be a “big sister” at this point. “I love that she has no regrets about being outspoken, about being strong-willed and strong-minded,” Zegler said of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law star. She also gotten props from her Shazam! Fury of the Gods costars Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu, who she called “my keepers in all of this, where I feel very held by them.”

While Hollywood is always a competitive place, Zegler said she doesn’t conform to the idea that it has to pit women against each other. “All I’m ever really looking for in this business is a sister and they’re not always easy to find. We’re often told that other women have to be your competition and I don’t subscribe to that,” she said, noting that she’s all for “championing your friends” and co-workers.

“So the second that there’s any intimidation or competition, just put on ‘Girl, so confusing’ by Charli XCX and talk it out,” she counseled. “I’ve come to know that in the last couple of years, in search of female friendship in the industry, there is room for all of us no matter what anybody else will have you think.”

The story also touches on Zegler, whose family is Colombian, stepping into the role that was described in the original Brothers Grimm story in 1812 as one inhabited by a woman “white as snow,” at a time when the Trump administration is rolling back DEI initiatives and scrubbing the government’s websites of any words tied to diversity or inclusion.

“The reality is, I was given a chance because I could sing,” she told the magazine about her bona fides to play the role that has traditionally been inhabited by white actresses in the film opening on Friday (March 21). “They saw something. Something they could invest in for the future,” she said of Snow White coproducer Marc Platt and director Marc Webb’s recognition that it was her talent, not her appearance, that mattered when casting her in the role.

“Snow White has an optimistic, youthful grace. Even in her darkest moments, she finds humanity and beauty in others,” Webb said. “I think Rachel has that in her spirit. And it doesn’t hurt that during her screen test, she made us weep with her rendition of ‘Waiting on a Wish.’”

Feeling good can definitely lead to sounding good. That’s the lesson Selena Gomez said she learned while working in secret on her first album with fiancé Benny Blanco, I Said I Love You First.
In an joint interview with Rolling Stone, the happy couple said that while they are super psyched to plan their wedding — “I think every day she’s planned a new wedding in her head” said Blanco — for now, they are focusing on promoting and talking about the LP due out this Friday (March 21).

On her first album since 2020’s Rare, Gomez said the sessions were the “most intimate” she’s ever had in a studio, helped by the fact that she was working with her beloved and their trusted group of friends and collaborators. “We did everything from home, and we created it with people that we love,” she said, citing a re-team with songwriters Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, who she worked with a decade ago on her Billboard Hot 100 No. 5 hit “Good For You.”

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And while the seating arrangements for their nuptials are not being worked out just yet, Blanco said the sessions were a love-filled supplement to their relationship. “I hadn’t seen her excited about music for a long time. And I remember she was like, ‘I have to pull over the car because I’m so happy,’” Blanco said. “And then I knew at that moment. I was like, ‘Well, if it’s making both of us happy, then hopefully it makes a few other people happy.’”

Gomez said she was “very frustrated and kind of confused” about where she wanted to go next musically, confiding in Blanco that she wasn’t sure what her sound is now. Luckily, 11-time Grammy nominee producer/songwriter Blanco was there, with a pad and pen, writing down whatever was on Sel’s mind as soon as she woke up, then jumping right into their home studio to make it a reality. “It was such a cathartic and therapeutic experience,” he said of the sessions they purposely kept “really close to the chest” so that they could write “exactly how we wanted it and to feel exactly now we wanted it to feel.”

After the success of her 2019 No. 1 hit “Lose You to Love Me” Gomez, 32, said she realized that storytelling was her strength and that her vocal sweet spot was in a lower register with a softer tone. Plus, given Blanco’s platinum status contact list, roping in current chart queens like Gracie Abrams (as well as Billie Eilish collaborator and older brother Finneas for two songs) was easy, and made perfect sense.

Blanco has known the “That’s So True” singer since she was 14 — she used to date one of his close friends — so when it came to inviting Abrams, 25, into their circle of trust to record “Call Me When You Break Up” he said it was not only a slam dunk, but seemingly meant to be. “One day, me and Selena were just talking about stuff, and Selena started following her, and they started commenting on each other’s things … She has so many unique characteristics about her, but she also has so many similar ones to Selena,” he said of Abrams. “When they hang out, they’re like, ‘Oh my god, we’re like, the same person.’ And they’re both little hermits that want to stay in and they’re both pretty shy, but somehow turn it on and become the biggest stars in the world.”

During the shoot for the song’s video, Blanco said the two women had what he described as “almost like telepathy” when they were talking to each other, with Gomez easily slipping into the big sister role. “And low-key, I got cool points from my little sister for having her on [the album],” Gomez added.

The ease of the sessions also helped produce one of Gomez’s cheekiest love songs to date, the lascivious “Sunset Blvd.” which is simply dripping with innuendo that Blanco said had them laughing during the sessions. “‘Can we really get away with it? Is this really something we’re gonna do?’” he remembered asking. “That’s when the best moments come out. A lot of artists won’t do stuff like that. And Selena has the perfect way of dipping her toe in the water of, like, almost too far, but not — but, like, is it? And it’s because she’s so multifaceted.”

Gomez said that toe-dipping came as a result of her being more comfortable playing around with lyrics that she used to be, crediting acts like Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Abrams and Charli XCX for giving her “a little bit more freedom to play.”

Clearly at ease in each other’s company, Gomez said the title of the album perfectly describes their relationship and “embodies his stories combined with my stories,” while also leaving some things unsaid. “They have meanings that are really just personal to both of us,” he said. “So one song could actually mean two different things.”

At this point, Blanco said he’s just “happy to be along for the ride” thanks to his “put me in, coach” attitude about his professional and personal relationship with Gomez. “I’m doing whatever it takes,” he said.

Thanks to the “massive” marquise-cut diamond ring Blanco slipped on Gomez’s finger in December, it’s only natural that questions about their wedding plans keep coming up. Blanco said they’re just taking things one day at a time for now, even as Gomez can’t stop staring at the sparkler. “I genuinely feel like this is such a special time that we get to apply it to this album and really just pour our heart into it, and completely translate what we feel and bring it to the world,” she said. “That’s my main focus right now, at least.”