Intro for September 13, 2024

Dear Gossips,  

First, we will be live chatting the Emmys on Sunday, September 15, on The Squawk starting at 7:30 PM ET. Join us! And now in Why Are Disney Adults Like This news, an Arizona couple’s years-long legal battle with Disney came to an end, when a jury ruled that Disney can kick them out of Club 33.

Let’s back up. Scott and Diana Anderson are Disney Adults from Arizona who, after twelve years on a waiting list, were admitted into Disney’s “secret” VIP members-only club, Club 33. They paid $50,000 for the privilege. Then, after five years of membership, they were “terminated” from Club 33 because Scott was found “drunk” on a park bench in California Adventure. He claims his disoriented state was due to a vestibular migraine. The Andersons sued Disney to regain access to Club 33, but seven years after they were booted out, a jury deliberated for 45 minutes before deciding that Disney doesn’t have to readmit them. I assume forty of the forty-five minutes was so the jurors could have lunch.

Scott and Diana gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter, and it is unhinged on multiple levels. First of all, I don’t care how much you love Disney, spending $50K for what amounts to a super special fast pass is bonkers. Diana says they later went to Disneyland on a lightning lane pass, but no one told them how to use it, so they didn’t get anything out of it. There are a thousand “how to” guides online about utilizing Disney’s fast pass system. Perish the thought of googling, I guess.

I’ve been to Club 33 (as a guest), I even got to go back when it was sort of like a private museum, preserving Walt Disney’s personal apartment in the park, and it was neat. The host knew a ton of Disney trivia, there was some cool park history stuff, the food was good. Would I pay $50K for it? No. I wouldn’t pay $5K for it. But I feel about Club 33 as I feel about Soho House—happy for the invite but members-only clubs are not for me. They inevitably attract the kind of people who won’t do their own googling.

While I think it’s insane to sue Disney—generally but most especially in this case—I do understand Scott Anderson’s point that he doesn’t want to be known as “the drunk in the park”. I don’t know that a seven-year lawsuit helps much, though, because now he’s the “the guy who sued when Disney took his special boy card away”. But I have to admit, the details Scott and Diana are spilling in THR are kind of fascinating. Like how Club 33 has been overhauled in a way that actually does sound like Disney started charging premium prices for a worse experience—consistent with their hotel expansions, see also: Jenny Nicholson’s review of the Star Wars hotel—and that one of the perks of the “old” Club 33 was that you could get waffles at four o’clock in the afternoon. You know where else you can get waffles at four o’clock in the afternoon? Denny’s.

Other details include: Tom Hanks hosts private Thanksgiving dinners in the park, members are selling exclusive merch online for thousands of dollars, and you can have dinner in the Haunted Mansion. But you can do that without belonging to Club 33, you just need $75,000 and you can have a five-course dinner party for up to 30 guests (not that I’ve looked into it…). This is like a new level of Disney Adultdom. Read the whole interview, it’s WILD. There’s really only one way to sum it up:

https://giphy.com/gifs/kim-kardashian-xt98N1EXdEIzC

Live long and gossip,

Sarah