Will Smith’s 10-Year Oscars Ban: ‘Toothless Penalty’ or ‘White Privilege on Parade’?
thewrap.comRob Lowe-Snow White production number. The Academy infuriated rank-and-file members by pre-taping eight below-the-line awards to trim the ceremony (which still managed to run 20 minutes longer than last year).
It snubbed Volodymyr Zelenskyy from an on-air appearance, despite Sean Penn’s threat to publicly smelt his Oscar if the Ukrainian president wasn’t allowed to speak (Zelenskyy ended up slumming it at the Grammys).
Even the Academy’s brand-new $500 million movie museum — the one that co-host Wanda Sykes toured during a three-minute product-placement bit during the show — has been tangled in controversy, with complaints that its exhibits focus on every possible ethnic group but the one that actually built Hollywood (yep, they left out the Jews).But on April 8, after deliberating on the fate of Will Smith for nearly two weeks, the Academy’s board of governors finally got something right.
Its decision to ban Smith from Academy functions for 10 years — while allowing him to keep his newly-won Best Actor trophy and his eligibility for future awards — seems totally fair and proportional, especially considering that Smith had already apologized and resigned from the Academy in a savvy gesture of contrition.
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