{"id":500784,"date":"2026-02-26T12:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500784\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:33:09","slug":"protesters-gather-at-scream-7-premiere-after-melissa-barrera-fired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500784\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters Gather at ‘Scream 7’ Premiere After Melissa Barrera Fired"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tProtesters gathered outside of Wednesday night\u2019s \u201cScream 7<\/a>\u201d premiere at the Paramount<\/a> Studios lot in Los Angeles, calling for a boycott of the horror film in a show of support for Palestine.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout 25 demonstrators were seen positioned around the lot with flags, drums and bullhorns. They were heard chanting phrases like \u201cParamount, Paramount, what do you say?\u201d and \u201cPalestine will live forever!\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile speaking on the red carpet, \u201cScream 7\u201d director Kevin Williamson shared his thoughts on the protest. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe live in a world where a lot of bad things are happening out there, and I think a lot of people want to be heard and they want to have their voice heard about the bad stuff that\u2019s happening,\u201d Williamson told Variety. \u201cMy heart goes out to them. I don\u2019t know if canceling Paramount+ is the way to do it. But I think people should listen to their inner self and do what feels good for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe outrage likely stems from the firing of the former series<\/a> star Melissa Barrera<\/a>. In the wake of Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023 attack and Israel\u2019s subsequent retaliation, Barrera took to Instagram to share her views on the conflict. She was largely critical of Israel, and she accused the nation of \u201cgenocide and ethnic cleansing.\u201d She also shared a post from Jewish Currents Magazine about distorting \u201cthe Holocaust to boost the Israeli arms industry.\u201d Shortly after, \u201cScream\u201d producer Spyglass Media Group exclusively revealed to Variety that it had dropped the \u201cIn the Heights\u201d actress from the franchise because of the posts.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSpyglass\u2019 stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech,\u201d a Spyglass spokesperson told Variety at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-star Jenna Ortega, citing scheduling<\/a> conflicts, exited \u201cScream 7\u201d shortly after, along with original director Christopher Landon, who said he received death threats over Barrera\u2019s firing. The script had to be rewritten, and Neve Campbell\u2019s original heroine, Sidney Prescott, was inserted as the lead. Williamson, who wrote the first \u201cScream\u201d movie, took over as director. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cScream 7,\u201d which premieres on Friday, follows Campbell\u2019s Sidney Prescott as she relocates to Woodsboro for a quiet life with her daughter, only to have Ghostface return to burn it all down. Campbell stars alongside fellow original cast members Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Matthew Lillard, as well as Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, Joel McHale and Mckenna Grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters gathered outside of Wednesday night\u2019s \u201cScream 7\u201d premiere at the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles, calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,50568,9489,38053],"class_list":["post-500784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-melissa-barrera","tag-paramount","tag-scream-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}