Gal Gadot Tried to Cheer Us Up About Virus. It Flopped

Gal Gadot obviously meant well—but her attempt to instill some hope amid the coronavirus outbreak isn't going over quite as planned. The Telegraph notes that the Wonder Woman star gathered a bunch of celebrities together to make a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" to "lift spirits," featuring such stars as Mark Ruffalo, Amy Adams, Sia, Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Cara Delevingne, Kristen Wiig, and more. Gadot, who posted the video Wednesday on Instagram, said in the intro to the song that she had become a "bit philosophical" after six days in self-quarantine and was inspired to put this piece together by a viral video that showed an Italian man playing the song on his trumpet. "There was something so powerful and pure about [that] video," she says. Newsweek notes that the reviews for Gadot's video, however, were more "mixed."

"I totally teared up! Thank you for sharing!!!," said one commenter of the video, posted on Twitter by a Gal Gadot fan account. "Its beautiful. Its about spirit," said another. The montage even drew some praise on Instagram from famous fans, including January Jones—"so beautiful all of you"—and Jessica Chastain, who similarly wrote: "This is so beautiful." Not everyone agreed. "John Lennon is rolling in his grave," one not-fan wrote; another called Gadot's creation "cheesy and embarrassing." The most popular complaint: that Hollywood luminaries could be doing more than simply getting together and singing. "Boohoo. You are stuck at home with a full bank account and all the necessities. What are they doing as individuals to help???" one critic noted. And from another eye-roller: "Millionaire celebrities singing 'imagine no possessions' is just about my favourite thing in the whole wide world." (More Gal Gadot stories.)