An employee at the Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE:DIS) Paris theme park has become one of the Internet’s most hated people after interrupting a wedding proposal in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
What Happened: Newsweek reported on a video showing a man dropping to one knee on a platform in front of a woman while holding up a box containing an engagement ring. The man reportedly had permission from a park employee to use the spot for his proposal.
But before she could touch the ring, another Disney employee ran up to the couple, forced his way between them, grabbed the ring box, scurried off the platform and motioned for the couple to follow. While the future bridegroom declared “She said yes!” to the Disney staffer, the latter called out, “Yes, that's great but over here will be even better” while ushering them off the platform amid a chorus of gasps and boos from onlookers.
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What Happened Next: The 21-second video was posted on Reddit's "I Am a Total Piece of S**t" forum under the title "POS destroyed my best friend's moment. He asked for permission beforehand." And while a few Reddit denizens openly questioned if the incident was intentionally staged for the cameras, the posting was upvoted more than 95,000 times.
The couple and the Disney employee were not identified, but their video went viral and generated a wave of negative publicity for Disney, which quickly went into damage control.
"We regret how this was handled," said a Disney spokesperson to Newsweek. "We have apologized to the couple involved and offered to make it right."
Photo: Screenshot of the disrupted proposal, courtesy of What's Best's YouTube channel
