No wonder Rock refused all interviews before Hollywood’s big night.
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“They’re not gonna cancel the Oscars because I quit”.
This would give the awards the smallest audience since 2008 when Jon Stewart hosted and “No Country For Old Men” won Best Picture with just over 32 million viewers, and 2003 when “Chicago” was the top movie and the show drew 33 million, according to Nielsen data.
The actress and wife of Hollywood star Will Smith was at the forefront of an Oscar’s boycott after voicing her “deep disappointment” that this year’s nominations failed to include any ethnic minority actors.
But the white producers, directors, casting agents and writers in the Hollywood and Highland Center auditorium audience last night, who laughed with awkward enthusiasm at Chris Rock’s punchlines need to also be called out and held accountable in the same way as the Academy.
Nominated that evening for Best Original Song, Lady Gaga’s performance of, “Til It Happens To You” from the film The Hunting Ground, was considered one of the biggest highlights of the evening. Renowned for his use of natural light in lengthy, balletic shots, Lubezki became the first cinematographer to win three times in a row (following wins for Gravity and Birdman), and only the seventh to three-peat in Oscar history.
DiCaprio was a fan-favorite to win Best Actor for his role in the movie The Revenant.
“Someone posted the tasteless joke that Chris Rock did in his opening”, he wrote.
“We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters and big corporations”, DiCaprio said.
“So what a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and this tribal thinking and make sure for once and forever that the color of our skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair”, he said.
Leslie Jones had me laughing quite a bit as she tore up Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant. I thank you all for this unbelievable award tonight. And if you want to, y’know, take shirtless selfies together, we’d be more than happy to accommodate that too.
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“The protest and boycott of the Oscars was a success!”, Ali said on Facebook. “I mean, cause ‘Rocky” takes place in a world where white athletes are as good as black athletes”.
