Oscars crisis team created just in case something happens among self-absorbed celebrities

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Imagine thinking it is completely reasonable that someone from the audience walks on stage and slaps the host of a Hollywood award show. Self-absorbed celebrities often behave badly. They live in sheltered bubbles where no one ever says no to them and there are no boundaries. When Will Smith reacted to a joke Academy Awards host Chris Rock made at the expense of his wife, he lost control of himself. Instead of taking a breath and holding his response for another time, Smith went up and slapped Rock.

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The Academy is preparing for this year’s ceremony that will air on March 12. The 95th Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, who is a terrible host. Oh well. Just in case someone in the audience decides to act like a fool this year, there will be the first-ever crisis team in place. A crisis team for grown adults. It’s ridiculous that this has to be done in the first place. Chief executive officer Bill Kramer said there has never been a crisis team created before when he announced precautions are being taken.

Academy’s chief executive officer, Bill Kramer, said there will now be a crisis team on hand at Hollywood’s biggest night, describing it as “something we’ve never had before.”

“We’ve run many scenarios,” he said. “So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we’re planning for just in case it does happen.”

“Because of last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars. But these crisis plans—the crisis communication teams and structures we have in place—allow us to say this is the group that we have to gather very quickly,” Kramer told Time.

“This is how we all come together. This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement,” he said. “And obviously depending on the specifics of the crisis, and let’s hope something doesn’t happen and we never have to use these, but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify.”

Will Smith will not be in attendance this year because he was banned from attending the Oscars for the next 10 years. He’s lucky he wasn’t arrested and charged with assault. There were certainly plenty of witnesses. Telling him that he can’t come to the award show for a few years is just a slap on the wrist.

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The crisis team is ready to spring into action if anything happens.

Will Smith is 54 years old. He’s old enough to know how to act in the moment. Chris Rock made a joke that referenced Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head. Apparently, Rock didn’t know that she suffers from alopecia. Rock isn’t known as a vicious kind of comedian. The crazy part was that so many people in the audience rallied around Smith, not Rock. Smith was sitting in the front row, went back to his seat after the slap as though nothing happened, and went on to win the Best Actor award. The audience applauded wildly. Only in Hollywood.

It took days for any action to be taken against Will Smith. He publicly apologized to Chris Rock in July. He claimed that Rock was not ready to talk to him one-on-one. Who can blame him?

Chris Rock has turned down work opportunities including a Super Bowl commercial with Smith. He also turned down an interview with Oprah to address the slap. He turned down hosting this year’s Golden Globes and Oscars. Instead, he is focused on his comedy shows. Smart man.

At the traditional luncheon, hosted by Oscar nominees, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Janet Yang addressed last year’s craziness.

“I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars,” she said, according to Variety.

“What happened onstage was fully unacceptable, and the response from our organization was inadequate,” Yang declared.

“We learned from this that the academy must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions — and particularly in times of crisis you must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and for our industry. You should and can expect no less from us going forward.”

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The ratings fall year after year for award shows because they have become too long and too boring. Celebrities and show business elites preach to the audience about whatever political cause they are supporting that day. No one tunes in for that. They just want to see the stars and which movies win awards. Maybe more people will tune in this year just to see if the show makes it through without anyone having a hissy fit.

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John Stossel 12:30 PM | November 03, 2024
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