As Disney contends with a major controversy involving its suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, its ABC News Studios division has canceled a red carpet for today’s premiere of its documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story.
ABC News Studios informed the press of the red carpet cancellation via email on Saturday night, a day before the event. “Please note this event will no longer be hosting a red carpet,” the email reads, per Variety. “We appreciate your willingness to attend and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
That message also came just 24 hours after a confirmation email told reporters and photographers that Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and Mýa would be walking the red carpet. The Ford in Hollywood will still host a premiere screening and surprise performances, according to the report.
ABC News Studios didn’t explain the red carpet cancellation, Variety adds, but the switch-up comes after days of outcry over ABC taking Jimmy Kimmel Live! off air over Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk.
Amid mass outrage over the network’s silencing of Kimmel, social media users — including celebrities — are urging others to boycott Disney by canceling their Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN subscriptions. Tatiana Maslany, Misha Collins, and Wil Wheaton all promoted the subscription boycott, USA Today reports.
In unlucky timing for the Lilith Fair team, the documentary, directed by Ally Pankiw, premieres in the United States today on Hulu. The documentary draws from new interviews and 600 hours of footage to “[tell] the history of the groundbreaking music festival featuring only women artists, started by iconic Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan and her team in the late 1990s, in opposition to systematic industry barriers that limited women from playing together on a concert bill and getting back-to-back airplay on the radio.”
Aside from McLachlan, Jewel, and Mýa, original Lilith Fair artists Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Erykah Badu, Paula Cole, Natalie Merchant, Emmylou Harris, and the Indigo Girls are interviewed in the documentary, as well as Brandi Carlile and Olivia Rodrigo.
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story, Now Streaming, Hulu