Here are some photos of Zooey Deschanel and her (uber-hot) husband Jacob Pechenik at the LA premiere of Trolls this week. I had hoped that being with a hottie MAN like Jacob would have forced the twee out of Zooey, but then they had a baby and they named her Elsie Otter, so maybe Jacob enjoys the twee as well. Anyway, little Elsie Otter crops up in a story Zooey told to Ellen DeGeneres this week. I watched the clip (I’m including it at the end of the post) and it’s not like Zooey is trying to “call out” American Airlines or slam them publicly. It seems like there was some kind of misunderstanding and Zooey was told that the airline no longer allows families with babies or small children to board first.
Zooey Deschanel recounted the incident during an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show this week, revealing she was sent away because she hadn’t paid for priority boarding. She said: ‘They stopped letting people go first with babies and there’s so much stuff [that you’re traveling with]. I was really excited about this privilege – that you get to go on first if you have a baby.’
But much to her dismay, the airline she was travelling with told her that she had to wait like the other passengers. She continued: ‘The first time we went on a plane with her I was like, “OK, we’re ready!” and they [the staff)]were like, ‘No, you can’t come on’… we had three seats in coach. The people who get on first pay a lot of money for this privilege.’
Unsurprisingly, Degeneres was unimpressed with the story, telling her guest, ‘It’s hard enough to travel with a baby. You’ve got all kinds of stuff.’
American Airlines told MailOnline Travel: ‘We do apologize to Ms. Deschanel for any confusion that occurred during the boarding process. Our policy is to pre-board families with children upon request, free of charge.’
Watching the clip, it’s clear that Zooey was just sort of telling a funny story about flying for the first time with Elsie Otter, but Ellen was pissed off on her behalf that American Airlines didn’t let her board early. Since I don’t travel that much these days, I didn’t even know that boarding early with babies/kids is such a thing, but it makes sense… although it does seem to be one of those hot-button “mommy war” issues that end up being unexpectedly polarizing. Only bad mothers board early! No, only bad mothers DON’T board early!
You can also feel that American Airlines really doesn’t want Ellen blowing this up to be a bigger controversy, thus those tweets. If it’s American Airlines’ policy to pre-board families with children, why was Zooey told in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t board early with a small infant?
At around the 2:30 mark is when she talks about the plane stuff. You can watch the whole interview, but… yeah, a little Zooey goes a long way. She’s so twee.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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