On Aug. 5, 2023, the Disney fan website Mouse Trap News published an article with the headline, "Jada Pinkett Smith Cast as Rapunzel in Live-Action Tangled."
The beginning of the article read as follows:
Disney continues to pump out subpar live-action versions of their classic movies. The Little Mermaid is of course the most recent. Prior to that, we saw Pinocchio and The Lion King. Both are objectively terrible remakes and a disgrace to the original animated film. However, Disney doesn't learn. In fact, a live-action remake of Tangled is in progress and Disney cast Jada Pinkett Smith to play Rapunzel.
However, while some websites had reported that a live-action version of "Tangled" may have been in the works, the part about Pinkett Smith purportedly being involved in such a project was not true.
Mouse Trap News is a satire website, as described on its "About" page.
Pinkett Smith appeared to have been targeted in the satire piece due to the fact that, in the past, she had shaved her head and suffers from alopecia areata, a condition that causes hair loss.
In Disney's animated film "Tangled" from 2010, the character of Rapunzel was known for her long, blonde hair.
Pinkett Smith's diagnosis made headlines in late March 2022 following the moment when her husband, actor Will Smith, slapped stand-up comedian Chris Rock on live TV during the 94th Academy Awards. Rock was the evening's host.
The slap stemmed from a joke that Rock had told onstage about Pinkett Smith's lack of hair. If viewers didn't know that she was suffering from alopecia before the broadcast, they likely learned this fact afterward, as the news of the shocking moment spread around the world.