Oscars 2018: James Franco snubbed, Ryan Seacrest accused, Casey Affleck pulls out — the Academy Awards controversies
A HOLLYWOOD star has reportedly thrown shade on E!’s Oscar red carpet host Ryan Seacrest as he faces sexual harassment allegations.
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SEX scandals, abuse allegations and misogyny. The Oscars used to forgive Hollywood stars for just about anything ... not anymore.
Since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, the movie industry is finally taking claims of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour seriously.
E!’s red carpet host Ryan Seacrest and The Disaster Artist actor James Franco are among the accused.
Ryan Seacrest, one of E!’s most recognisable faces in its Oscars coverage, was hit by sexual harassment allegations made by his former stylist.
E! confirmed Seacrest would still host the Oscars red carpet after the entertainment TV network conducted an “extremely comprehensive and thorough” investigation.
Now a star has reportedly thrown shade on E!’s Oscar red carpet host today.
Seacrest interviewed actress Taraji P. Henson who appeared to target him, leading to a very awkward pause.
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“You know what? The universe has a way of taking care of the good people,” Henson says to Seacrest in a seemingly unprompted aside. “You know what I mean?”
As she said it, she reached out and touched Seacrest’s chin. he said: “I agree,” and paused.
Welp 😳 pic.twitter.com/zKmUpYaYp2
— TV Guide (@TVGuide) March 5, 2018
Seacrest has previously said in a statement: “I have worked extremely hard to achieve my success and I don’t take my opportunities for granted”.
“I don’t want to accuse anyone of not telling the truth but in this case, I have no choice but to again deny the claims against me, remind people that I was recused of any wrongdoing, and put the matter to rest,” Seacrest said.
Given the #MeToo movement, it will be interesting to see how Hollywood stars react to Seacrest on the red carpet — will they still stop to be interviewed by him?
Meantime, Franco won a Golden Globe for The Disaster Artist in Januway and had been expected to receive an Oscar nomination.
But after the Globes, Franco was accused of sexually exploitative and inappropriate behaviour by five women — allegations he has disputed.
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“The ones I read were not accurate,” the actor said in an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers shortly after the Golden Globes. “But one of the things that I’ve learned is that this is a conversation that obviously needs to be had.”
Franco was at the SAG Awards later that month, where was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor, skipping the red carpet and looking stony-faced. He lost.
Days later, he failed to receive an Oscar nomination.
In the past, controversial actors, writers and directors have won Academy Awards despite their scandals.
Casey Affleck Woody Allen, Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, and Sean Penn won Oscars despite much-publicised controversies in their personal and professional lives.
CASEY AFFLECK
Last year, Casey Affleck, 41, won Best Actor for Manchester By The Sea. Traditionally, it would mean Affleck would present this year’s Oscar for Best Actress ... 12 months after he won.
But Affleck withdrew from presenting the award this year, bucking a longstanding ceremony tradition in the wake of sexual assault allegations made against him.
Neither the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or Affleck’s publicist gave a reason why.
“We appreciate the decision to keep the focus on the show and on the great work of this year,” an Academy spokesman said.
Deadline reported that Affleck “was in a no-win situation, with all the attention surrounding the #MeToo movement. The spectre of Affleck presenting would have created controversy”.
The allegations against Affleck stemmed from I’m Still Here, the mock doco he directed in 2010.
Affleck was sued for a combined $US4.25 million by producer Amanda White and cinematographer Magdalena Gorka for sexual harassment.
Among the allegations was Gorka’s claim that she was subjected to a “near daily barrage of sexual comments, innuendo and unwelcome advances”, The Guardian reported in 2010.
Both cases were settled out of court and the terms kept confidential.
Last year, actors including Fresh Off The Boat star Constance Wu have publicly opposed Affleck’s Oscar nomination. Wu tweeted that it reinforced “the industry’s gross and often hidden mistreatment of women”. Brie Larson, who presented Affleck with his Oscar, looked visibly unimpressed and did not clap, later saying her reaction “spoke for itself”.
In a statement to the New York Times, Affleck said of the allegations: “It was settled to the satisfaction of all. I was hurt and upset — I am sure all were — but I am over it”.
“It was an unfortunate situation — mostly for the innocent bystanders of the families of those involved,” Affleck said.
WOODY ALLEN
Hollywood collectively went WTF when Woody Allen’s romantic relationship with Soon-Yi Previn went public in 1992 (Soon-Yi is the adopted daughter of Allen’s former girlfriend, Mia Farrow).
Allen was also plagued by allegations of child molestation and “inappropriate touching” made by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. Farrow spoke out again about these allegations in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
“I have been repeating my accusations unaltered for over 20 years, and I have been systematically shut down, ignored or discredited,” Farrow said on CBS’s This Morning.
“If they can’t acknowledge the accusations of one survivor, how are they going to stand for all of us?”
In the wake of this, actors including Mira Sorvino, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, Jessica Chastain, Colin Firth, Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Hall publicly stated they would never work with Allen again.
Despite the allegations, Allen was nominated for 24 Oscars since 1977 — nine since the allegations. Allen most recently won Best Original Screenplay for Midnight In Paris (2011) — a movie he wrote and directed.
ROMAN POLANSKI
French-polish director Roman Polanski, 83, admitted to raping a 13 year old girl in 1977 and served 42 days in jail for the crime.
The Chinatown director fled the United States the following year in 1978 — after concerns he would be jailed for 50 years despite his plea deal.
He has remained a fugitive in France for four decades.
In that time, Polanski’s work has still been nominated for Oscars — and actually won. He was named Best Director in 2002 for The Pianist, and received a standing ovation when Harrison Ford accepted it on his behalf.
Polanski — who was married to Sharon Tate, the actor who was murdered by the Manson family — was forced to turn down an invitation to head The Cesar Awards (France’s equivalent of the Oscars) last year after protests over his appointment by women’s rights groups.
“This controversy has been generated by totally unfounded information, forty years after the issue in question. It has deeply saddened Roman Polanski and his family,” a rep for the director said at the time.
MEL GIBSON
He nominated for Best Director last year for Hacksaw Ridge but Gibson’s career has been marred by controversy.
His 2017 nod was Gibson’s first Oscar nomination more than two decades, since Braveheart (1995), and New York Post’s Page Six declared Gibson, 61, is “back after a decade in Hollywood exile”.
It was a long exile, too, prompted by a string of scandals, which led to him being dropped by Hollywood mega agency, WME.
Australian-raised Gibson’s dramatic fall from grace included his anti-Semitic tirade directed at a Jewish Los Angeles police officer in 2006 (Gibson later described his own behaviour as “despicable”).
Add to that alcohol-fuelled tirades, homophobic slurs and domestic violence towards his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva (Gibson pleaded guilty to hitting Grigorieva).
In an expletive-laden leaked recording of a phone call to Grigorieva (who is the mother of Gibson’s daughter, Lucia), Gibson said: “You go out in public and it’s a f****** embarrassment to me! You look like a f****** b**** on (ecstasy)”.
“And if you get raped by a pack of n*****s it’ll be your fault. All right? Because you provoked it,” Gibson said.
In a 2011 interview with Deadline, Gibson described it as “one terribly, awful moment in time, said to one person, in the span of one day and doesn’t represent what I truly believe or how I’ve treated people my entire life“.
SEAN PENN
He is one of Hollywood’s bad boys, known as much for his womanising ways as his acting prowess.
Scandals have included a volatile and short-lived marriage to Madonna, a failed engagement to Charlize Theron which reportedly ended when she “ghosted” him, and public PDA with a much younger woman.
Penn, 56, was widely criticised for his “failed” 2016 interview with drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for Rolling Stone.
“Let me be clear. My article has failed,” Penn said last year.
“I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to contribute to this conversation on the war on drugs.”
The political activist and humanitarian was accused of racism for comments he made onstage at the Oscars in 2015.
“Who gave this son of a b***h his green card?,” Penn said, while presenting Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu the Best Picture award for Birdman.
Penn refused to apologise for the remarks, which offended some, saying it was an in-joke between him and his friend, Iñárritu.
“I’m always surprised by flagrant stupidity. I keep having more hope,” Penn said in March 2015, according to Complex.
“I have absolutely no apologies. In fact, I have a big f**k you for every ... anybody who is so stupid not to have gotten the irony when you’ve got a country that is so xenophobic,” he said. “If they had their way, you wouldn’t have great filmmakers like Alejandro working in this country. Thank god we do.”
Despite Penn’s bad body reputation, he has remained in favour with Oscars voters, winning Best Actor twice, for Milk (2009) and Mystic River (2004).
Originally published as Oscars 2018: James Franco snubbed, Ryan Seacrest accused, Casey Affleck pulls out — the Academy Awards controversies
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