Oscars crisis team in place after Will Smith slap
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn’t want another incident like Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, but they are planning for the unexpected.
In an interview with Time magazine, the 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.”
During 2022’s ceremony, Smith walked on stage at the Oscars and slapped Rock, who was presenting at the time, after he made a joke about Smith’s wife’s shaved head.
Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia, an autoimmune condition that can lead to hair loss.
Will Smith later apologized, but The Academy has sanctioned the actor by banning him from attending the Oscars for the next 10 years.
“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.”
The 95th Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on March 12.
The-CNN-Wire
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