Jeff Bezos clearly has caused a nightmare PR disaster with his over-the-top display of wealth at his Venice wedding.
The stage was set: rent out one of the most visually pleasing cities on earth, hire (or invite) celebrities, and get a Vogue magazine feature on the wedding with Laura Sanchez. But all of it fell apart like the house of cards that it always was. There were protests, there was rain, there was mockery, and it seems Rosie O’Donnell put the final nail in the coffin with an eviscerating poem.
Rosie O’Donnell has a way with words — per Page Six her disgust was dosed with strong words for Sanchez, whom she called Jeff Bezos’ “fake fem bot.” O’Donnell alluded to how Jeff Bezos’ life has deviated from ex-wife MacKenzie Scott’s life path, who is spending her time and considerable wealth trying to help the least advantaged people around the world; some estimates even suggest that she has given away $19 billion since the divorce.
For Rosie O’Donnell, all this suggests that Jeff Bezos “sold his soul.” She wasn’t forgiving to the celebrities who joined in the circus either, calling them “devils’ conquests.” They can’t even fight that characterization. Leonardo DiCaprio seemed so embarrassed to be there that he wore a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap at the wedding. The only positive thing about DiCaprio’s off-screen public persona is his climate championing to create a better future for the world’s less fortunate, and now he’s at an event where people are being kicked out of hotels and have to ask for permission to board a water taxi in their own hometown.
Other celebrities joined in on the criticism too. The Mad Max star called out her colleagues who made time for the events while the “world feels like it’s burning.” At a charity event meant to support the youth of her native South Africa to ensure safety and health, Charlize questioned why they’d even go to the tech titan’s wedding while Trump’s administration is enforcing very troubling immigration hardlines and chipping away at trans and queer rights. Especially considering that Jeff Bezos has been one of Trump’s most vocal supporters.
Per Yahoo!, the children of Jeff Bezos didn’t even feel the need to ensure their presence was documented, but the likes of Sydney Sweeney and other A-list members of celebrity culture, who probably have no real relationship with Bezos beyond seeing him as the financier of their next project, were front and center.
People are understandably upset. It’s clear that the people who attended this event are so out of touch that they probably struggle to understand why. They probably even want to know why they cannot just have a little fun during their wedding weekend like everyone else. Well, all of them except Leonardo DiCaprio — he wasn’t hiding his face for nothing.
But let’s try to help them out. If you collect awards and show up at protests claiming to care about protecting people’s rights, it makes zero sense to turn around and party at a wedding that celebrates the wealth built by taking those rights away.
