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Paul Feig Calls Sydney Sweeney Jeans Fiasco 'Unnecessary Outrage'
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Paul Feig Calls Sydney Sweeney Jeans Fiasco 'Unnecessary Outrage'

By Mike Redmond | News | April 9, 2026

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Header Image Source: Getty

The Housemaid director Paul Feig is going to bat for Sydney Sweeney after the actor was swarmed with controversy last year over an American Eagle campaign that was accused of playing footsies with eugenics. Reports that Sweeney is a registered Republican did not help things one bit and led to her being dubbed “MAGA Barbie.”

Almost a year later, Feig has decided that now is the time to push back.

During an appearance at Variety’s Power of Law breakfast, whatever that is, Feig was not having it when the moderator brought up Sweeney’s jeans campaign. Via The Cut:

“Whatever,” an exasperated Feig said. “Unnecessary outrage is the biggest problem in our society right now. People get so outraged about stupid sh*t when there’s all kinds of things to be outraged about.” Feig added that he would know a thing or two about public outrage, since he directed the much-maligned all-female reboot of Ghostbusters, and “you would’ve thought I launched an invasion of Iraq.”

Was the jeans thing blown out of proportion for very, very easy clicks by people like me? Maybe. Did whoever coach Sweeney on her first response to the controversy do her dirty? Maybe, but also, maybe they’re geniuses and kept the conversation going. Surprisingly, Sweeney did eventually offer the best justification for why there’s no point in her fighting back once the ball got rolling.

“I haven’t figured it out,” she told Cosmopolitan in January. “I’m not a hateful person. If I say, ‘That’s not true,’ they’ll come at me like, ‘You’re just saying that to look better.’ There’s no winning. There’s never any winning. I just have to continue being who I am, because I know who I am. I can’t make everyone love me. I know what I stand for.”

And now for a very weird segue, there was a time when I would’ve written off that response as a slippery way of not admitting she’s MAGA. But then I started watching Traitors. If there’s one thing that show has proven, it’s that the minute anyone tries to defend themselves, they look 800% guilty to everyone around them. It’s been infuriating to watch it play out roundtable after roundtable. You watch an entire group of people just hop on the bandwagon and then act shellshocked when it repeatedly backfires. (Can you tell I’m on the Ron Funches season?)

Of course, now I just quasi-defended Sydney Sweeney, so I look forward to how that plays out in the comments. I’m sure embedding this Twitter video will help a whole lot, too. Digging holes is fun!