We ran a story on Sunday about Sydney Sweeney and her Novig ad. It picked up a hundred comments in two days, and one of the top-voted ones just asked why it was on this website at all. I happened to see the ad before I saw Mark's post about it, and I knew it was probably going to blow up. I think the user UltimaRex said it best… "It's the gift that keeps on giving…"
Now, as far as LEGITIMATE reasons why Sydney Sweeney would be covered on CBM: Sweeney did play Julia Cornwall, the film's take on Julia Carpenter, in Madame Web, she was rumored for Emma Frost in Marvel's X-Men reboot, which obviously isn't happening now that Samara Weaving has been cast, and she's attached to play Barbarella for Edgar Wright.
Why does this particular actress generate a pile-on every few months when celebrities that appear in worse films and display worse behavior get left alone? I went back through every major one since 2024, and I think I've discovered a pattern…
Madame Web opened in February 2024 to reviews in the low teens on Rotten Tomatoes, where it now sits at 10 percent, and finished at roughly $100 million worldwide against an $80 million production budget that doesn't count marketing. The mockery and hate ran for months. Sweeney later called the film "a building block" and said in a separate interview that she was hired as an actor, not a producer, on that one. I myself put off seeing the film for months, even AFTER it landed on streaming platforms. My wife and I finally sat down and watched it, and you know what? We both thought it was decent. Keep in mind, we're pretty easily entertained (we both liked Supergirl too). Would it stand up to multiple viewings? Probably not, but it was worth watching at least once.
In April 2024 producer Carol Baum, at a screening Q&A for her film Dead Ringers at the Jacob Burns Film Center, recounted what she'd told her USC class: "Explain this girl to me. She's not pretty, she can't act. Why is she so hot?" Sweeney's response through her rep called it shameful and pointed out that Baum was a woman in a position to teach but had decided to attack another woman instead. Producer Teddy Schwarzman, who worked with her on Immaculate, publicly called her one of the most talented actresses he'd worked with.
In July 2025 there was the American Eagle campaign built on a "great jeans" and "great genes" pun. Critics read a eugenics message into it and lost their minds. Defenders called it a manufactured outrage. It became a full culture-war story, with figures inside the White House weighing in on her side, which I find humorous because when I think of Sydney Sweeney, the last thing that comes to mind is politics.
American Eagle's stock rose through the controversy rather than falling, which is not what a boycott looks like. And reporting at the time traced a lot of the outcry back to a fairly small group of social media accounts. Small accounts in volume are still real people, so I won't tell you nobody was upset. But there is a difference between a backlash and the coverage of a backlash, and a good chunk of "the internet exploded" was outlets quoting each other.
Christy opened in November 2025 at 2,011 theaters and took $1.3 million. That's about $646 a screen. The reviews were decent, 66 percent from critics and 96 percent from audiences, and nobody went to see it.
Then last week, the Novig ad, and a row of Olympic and world-champion athletes saying it made a mockery of women's sport. Swimmer Ariarne Titmus said, "I can't describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this... It's a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft." Boxer Skye Nicolson put it this way: "There's a big difference between looking 'sexy' because you do sport compared to using sex to sell 'sport'."
Sweeney responded by posting ESPN Body Issue covers of nude athletes, Serena Williams and Ronda Rousey among them, next to her own photos.
Line those five up and what they share isn't bad acting. Four of the five are about an ad, a producer's remark, another ad, and a box office number.
The one argument that has merit, and I think most would agree with it, is that she keeps signing campaigns that trade on how she looks. The athletes criticizing the Novig spot have a direct stake in how their sport gets sold, and Sweeney's own answer was that the campaign was "about embracing a fun idea." I just don't think the argument holds up. The ad isn't selling women's sports, so I don't follow how it sets them back. Sweeney herself doesn't claim to be an athlete and she's never claimed to be promoting women's athletics… It was an ad with a popular celebrity endorsing a betting app that was targeting a very specific demographic… And Sweeney has ownership in that business. So is she just using the assets available to her?
Notice that the commercial record never comes up during a backlash. Anyone But You made about $220 million on a $25 million budget and was the first R-rated comedy to pass $200 million since 2016. The Housemaid did $400 million on a $35 million budget. She has two Emmy nominations, one for Euphoria, the other for White Lotus.She also owns her own production company. The "can't act," and "only famous for one thing" (maybe two?) criticisms conveniently leaves out the best parts of her resume.
The nepotism charge that follows her everywhere is factually wrong as well. Her parents are an attorney and a hospitality worker from the Spokane area. No family footholds in the industry. She's may be overexposed, but for all intents and purposes, she seems to have earned every bit of it.
As far as CBM is concerned, the thing that decides her standing here is Madame Web, and that movie had issues that none of the cast members could have fixed. If the X-Men rumors ever turn into another role, now that Emmar Frost has been cast, she'd be walking in with one superhero flop behind her, which is true for several other actors including Chris Evans, critically savaged in Fantastic Four, and Ryan Reynolds, who had Green Lantern before Deadpool.
Do you think the same arguments would be made if it were someone else in the ad? If she gets the offer, would you like to see her as Emma Frost? Me? I don't think I would mind one bit… as long as the suit fits.
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