'No Filter' host Zack Peter asks celebs like Selena Gomez, Rachel Zegler to stop political grandstanding

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Zach Peter, the outspoken host of the 'No Filter' podcast, is calling out what he sees as a growing trend of Hollywood stars turning social media into soapboxes and not for the right reasons.

“People are kind of just tired of Hollywood telling us what we're supposed to do,” Peter said in a recent interview. 

Zack Peter calls out Selena Gomez for 'virtue signaling' over immigration then flaunting luxury

In January, Selena Gomez got emotional in an Instagram video over the US immigration policies, crying about children being attacked and promising to try everything.

Fighting back tears in an emotional Instagram video, Selena Gomez said, “All my people are getting attacked, the children. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I wish I could do something, but I can’t. I don’t know what to do. I’ll try everything, I promise.”

Not long after, she removed the post and followed it up with a now-deleted Instagram story that read, “Apparently it’s not okay to show empathy for people.”

Just days later, she showed up at the Oscars in a glitzy outfit that screamed luxury. That quick shift didn’t sit well with Peter.

Peter told Fox News Digital, “I think this past year has been pretty indicative of that. You know, Hollywood virtue signaling and pretending that they care about these causes. Like Selena Gomez, remember when she was just a few weeks ago crying about immigration and then two weeks after that, she's on a red carpet dripped out in jewels and suddenly immigration is just not important to her anymore?”

“So I think people just feel like it's fake, right?” he asked. “It's a lot of virtue signaling. It's a lot of pandering that I think people are just tired of. We don't want to be lectured to.” 

Zack Peter blames Rachel Zegler's 'political pandering' for 'Snow White's' poor reception

Peter didn’t stop at Gomez. He pointed to 'Snow White' actress Rachel Zegler, who drew criticism for her bold social media stances before the underwhelming release of Disney’s remake. Zegler’s posts supporting “Free Palestine” and her digs at Trump and his supporters raised eyebrows and may have hurt ticket sales, according to Peter.

“So I think people have kind of tuned out when celebrities make their political-pandering comments on social media, unless you're really like Rachel Zegler, where you're coming out strong with an opinion that is kind of polarizing,” Peter explained. 

“I think there's a way to share your support for something without isolating people at the same time. And so I think we need more of that. If you're going to talk about it, at least try to make the message unifying rather than creating more political division,” he added.

Jane Fonda also caught some heat. Accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 SAG Awards, the actress defended the word “woke” as simply meaning empathy.

Fonda said, “What we (actors) create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls.”

Peter didn’t buy it. He said, “If Hollywood had the power that it had, Kamala Harris would have been elected president," before adding, “And we're just seeing that people just aren't in touch with celebrities anymore or their political statements. So I don't think they're really having much sway, especially with this new administration.”