Oscars Creative Team Reveals Ceremony Theme and How Last Year’s Slap Will Be Addressed: ‘We’re Going to Acknowledge It and Move On’

variety.com:

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor At a Wednesday press conference about what audiences can expect from Sunday’s Oscars telecast, the creative team behind the 95th Academy Awards, including executive producer and showrunner Glenn Weiss, confirmed Lady Gaga will not be performing her Oscar-nominated song from “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Hold my Hand.” The Will Smith factor was also addressed by the creative team, which included executive producer and showrunner Ricky Kirshner, musical director Rickey Minor, writers Dave Boone, Nefetari Spencer and Agathe Panaretos and producer Sarah Levine Hall.

Traditionally, the previous year’s best actor winner returns to present the best actress award, but Smith, who resigned from the Academy following his slapping of host Chris Rock is banned from attending for ten years.

Executive producer Molly McNearney said, “We’re going to acknowledge it, and then we’re gonna move on.” She added, “We don’t want to make this year about last year.

It’s certainly something we can and will address in a comedic fashion.” Kirshner, a new addition to the team, stressed, this was a new show that was going to differ from what regular viewers are used to. “There’s no more ‘This is what we used to do.’ We’ve rethought the show and we’ve got presenters that make sense for the categories.” The show will encompass many themes.