Actress Gal Gadot took to social media on Wednesday to post a video showing her and a group of celeb friends attempting to cheer up people in coronavirus isolation and quarantine by doing a cover of John Lennon’s Imagine.
However, what appeared to be a good-intentioned effort backfired quickly when some of Gadot’s 36.9 million Instagram followers began calling her out over what they considered an ill-advised attempt. Gadot’s video arrives at a time that thousands of people are losing their jobs and falling into dire financial straits.
“Just what the world needs now. A bunch of overpaid, privileged bell-ends singing a crap song badly,” one of Gadot’s Instagram followers wrote.
“Makes me want to break out of self-quarantine to escape such nonsense,” the follower added.
Gadot was inspired by a video of an Italian playing Imagine on his trumpet
The three-minute video starts with Gadot addressing her Instagram fans with a message of optimism and hope.
“We are in this together, we will get through it together. Let’s imagine together. Sing with us. All love to you, from me and my dear friends.”
Gadot informed viewers that she has been in isolation for six days and that she has been feeling philosophical in the past few days. She said she has been thinking about the global spread of coronavirus and how people from all over the world have been impacted regardless of their nationality and social status.
“We are all in together,” she said. “I ran into this video… this Italian guy playing the trumpet in his balcony… to all the other people who were locked inside their homes. And he was playing Imagine and there was something so powerful and pure… about this video.. and it goes like this.”
She then began singing John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Gadot’s celeb friends joined her to sing Imagine
Gadot was joined in singing by several of her celeb friends in the new video.
They included Kristen Wiig, Jamie Dornan, James Marsden, Zoe Kravitz, Sarah Silverman, Natalie Portman, Eddie Benjamin, Chris O’Dowd, Lynda Carter, Jimmy Fallon, Ashley Benson, Cara Delevingne, and Mark Ruffalo.
Many Twitter users thought the video was “cringe-worthy” and “out of touch”
However, many took to Twitter to slam Gadot and her celeb friends for giving a “cringe-worthy” performance. Several Twitter users also thought that the idea of celebs singing to cheer people up was ill-conceived and “out of touch.”
Some mocked the celebs for singing the part of the Imagine lyrics that say, “imagine no possessions.” They thought it was an irony that rich “out of touch” celebs would sing about having no possessions from the comfort of their luxurious mansions.
Some social media users also wondered how millionaires singing about having no possessions would help to ease people’s fears about the coronavirus pandemic or help to heal people that were infected and suffering from the coronavirus illness. They also wondered how such a cringe-worthy performance would help thousands of people who have lost their jobs due to the outbreak.
I wanna know which celebrities got a text from Gal Gadot inviting them to be in that cringe fest video and just went "nah… I'm good, thanks".
Those are the real heroes.
— just a tad (@tadmorari) March 19, 2020
Gal Gadot. You are Wonder Woman. You know better than create that tone-deaf (in more ways than one), out-of-touch, cringe-worthy, and absolutely useless video montage of yalls rich and pretty murdering "Imagine" on Twitter from the gleaming <insert part of palace> of your abodes.
— IRIS (@MsMontesclaros) March 19, 2020
Listen, I love all of these people and I get it…but there is more important shit going on right now. How about they all donate $1 for every view this video receives instead? #coronavirus #COVID19 #Galgadot #FilmTwitter pic.twitter.com/MjW0yJx1H8
— Matt Neglia (@NextBestPicture) March 19, 2020
Many Twitter users suggested that Gadot and her celeb friends would do far greater good by donating money to people suffering from COVID-19 and to people who have recently lost their jobs as a result of the economic downturn.
The outrage over Gal Gadot’s Imagine video comes after Monsters and Critics reported that actor Kevin Bacon took to Instagram to use the concept of degrees of separation to encourage people to practice social distancing.
Several celebrities have also announced that they’ve tested positive for coronavirus. They include Luther actor Idris Elba and actor Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson.