Bridgerton Star Sparks Backlash After Disney Princess Team-Up as New Film Gets Panned

Italy. Sun-drenched villas. Two very famous, very good-looking leads. On paper, 'You, Me & Tuscany' sounds like a layup. In reality, the internet just saw the setup and immediately threw a flag on the play.

What the movie actually is

The rom-com pairs Rege-Jean Page and Halle Bailey, with Kat Coiro directing. Bailey plays a young cook who winds up living in an abandoned Tuscan villa. She crosses paths with Page, sparks fly, and you can probably guess the rest. The film is set for a theatrical release on April 10, 2026.

The early blowback

Before anyone has seen a frame, the first wave of reactions on X (posted November 17, 2025) went hard at the premise, tone, and overall vibe. The big sticking point: the movie seems to treat trespassing/squatting as a cute meet-cute.

'Only Hollywood would make breaking into someone’s house a love story and expect us to clap. This is why rom-coms fell off'

Another user asked the promo account how much they were paid to push a 'terrible looking movie,' while someone else summed up the plot as: 'She’s a squatter... so I’ll need to turn my brain all the way off.' The sentiment is pretty clear: people are not in the mood for romanticized breaking-and-entering, no matter how golden the Tuscan hour is.

Why the glossy Europe formula is wearing out

This reaction isn’t just about one movie. It’s about the pattern. Viewers have been saying for a while that these postcard romances look great and feel empty. After a pileup of similar titles, the charm has started to calcify into a checklist.

• The familiar playbook: warm lighting, cobblestones, drone shots, and a lead who ditches their old life to find love abroad. Think 'Love & Gelato,' 'Letters to Juliet,' 'Under the Tuscan Sun,' and travel-adjacent fare like 'Eat Pray Love.' After enough repetitions, the plots, color palettes, and character choices all blur together.
• Lightweight stakes: cute meet-cutes that feel forced, characters acting unrealistically to keep the fantasy afloat, and resolutions that arrive because the genre says they should.
• What audiences want now: rom-coms with real emotional stakes, believable arcs, and specificity — whether that’s cultural detail, a sharper point of view, or characters who behave like actual humans under stress.

About that casting — yes, it’s deliberate

Pairing Page with Bailey is not random. Page is still widely associated with 'Bridgerton' (the charismatic face of season one for a lot of viewers), which carries major romance prestige. Bailey headlined Disney’s 2023 'The Little Mermaid' and became a lightning rod for conversation around representation and stardom. Put them together and you’re merging two highly visible fanbases and two kinds of appeal in one package. That is exactly the sort of calculation studios make when they want reach and awareness out of the gate.

So, can it still work?

Maybe. The backlash is loud, but the movie isn’t out yet. If 'You, Me & Tuscany' leans past the glossy brochure stuff and gives these two stars something grounded and specific to play — something that acknowledges the ethical weirdness at the core of its premise instead of glamorizing it — there’s room to surprise people who have written off the genre.

'You, Me & Tuscany' opens in theaters April 10, 2026. Curious or already out? Drop your take on the Page x Bailey pairing in the comments.