Calls for boycott over diversity throw Oscars into turmoil

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Calls for boycott over diversity throw Oscars into turmoil
JAKE COYLE, AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Growing calls for a boycott of the Academy Awards over the lack of diversity among this year's Oscar nominees are forcing stars to choose sides and threatening to throw the movie industry's biggest night of the year into turmoil.

The backlash over the second straight year of all-white acting nominees is also putting heavy pressure on the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to diversify its overwhelmingly white male membership.

The furor grew on Tuesday when the Rev. Al Sharpton said he would lead a campaign encouraging people not to watch the Feb. 28 telecast. On Monday, Spike Lee, this year's Oscar honoree for lifetime achievement, and Jada Pinkett Smith announced they will boycott the ceremony in protest.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who has led efforts to diversify the academy, responded late Monday evening with a forceful statement saying that those previous measures weren't enough.

Isaacs, the academy's first African American president, said that "it's time for big changes" and that she will review membership recruiting to bring about "much-need diversity" in the academy's ranks.

At a Los Angeles gala honoring Boone Isaacs on Monday night, actor David Oyelowo — who was famously snubbed last year for his performance as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in "Selma" — expressed frustration with the academy.

"This institution doesn't reflect its president and it doesn't reflect this room," Oyelowo said. "I am an academy member and it doesn't reflect me and it doesn't reflect this nation."

Other stars began weighing in. George Clooney, in comments to Variety, said that after earlier progress by the industry, "you feel like we're moving in the wrong direction." He noted that movies like "Creed," ''Straight Outta Compton," ''Beasts of No Nation" and "Concussion" may have deserved more attention from the academy.

"But honestly, there should be more opportunity than that," Clooney said. "There should be 20 or 30 or 40 films of the quality that people would consider for the Oscars. By the way, we're talking about African Americans. For Hispanics, it's even worse. We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it."

A 2012 Los Angeles Times study found that the academy was 94 percent white and 77 percent male.

UCLA's latest annual Hollywood Diversity Report concluded that women and minorities are substantially underrepresented in front of and behind the camera, even while audiences show a strong desire for films with diverse casts. Hispanics and African Americans go to the movies more often than whites do.

UCLA surveyed film and TV executives and found that 96 percent are white.

In his comments Monday, Lee said the Oscars' problems ultimately reside with "the gate keepers" who have the power to green-light projects.

Isaacs enlisted Chris Rock, who famously called Hollywood "a white industry" a year ago, as host of this year's ceremony. The backlash all but ensures Rock's opening monologue will, for many, be the most anticipated event of the show.

Last year's broadcast, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, was also boycotted by some viewers because of the all-white slate of acting nominees. Ratings dipped to a six-year low for ABC.

Some on Tuesday put pressure on Rock to join the boycott. The rapper 50 Cent urged on Instagram: "Chris, please do not do the Oscars awards. You mean a lot man, don't do it." A representative for Rock didn't immediately respond to an email.

One person emphatically not on board with the boycott was actress Janet Hubert, who starred with Will Smith on the '90s sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." In a video posted on Facebook, she lambasted Pinkett Smith for asking actors to jeopardize their career for an insubstantial cause.

"There's a lot of s--- going on the world that you all don't seem to recognize," said Hubert. "People are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are starving. People are trying to pay bills. And you're taking about some motherf------ actors and Oscars. It just ain't that deep."

Just how much more Boone Isaacs can do to promote diversity at the academy, where membership is for life, remains to be seen. In November, she launched a five-year initiative to encourage more diversity in Hollywood, called A2020.

But Boone Isaacs noted there is some precedent for more drastic steps. In the late '60s, for example, academy president Gregory Peck tried to inject more youth by stripping many older members no longer working in the industry of the right to vote.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-20

[NeverSure]

I'm boycotting the show because it's boring. Apparently some of those people think quite highly of themselves. Does someone actually watch it?

Cheers

[mgjackson69]

As if anyone would miss this annual, self-congratulatory, boring production anyway.

Now we have to have "affirmative action" in stupid movie awards as well?

Some Hollywood types need to get over themselves.

[pedro01]

So let's get this right....

They will now employ more black judges because they believe that these black judges will be biased towards black nominees in order to foster diversity?

Seems to me that this is a good way to foster mediocrity.

They need UNBIASED judges. no more, no less. I see no evidence that this is not currently the case.

[arrowsdawdle]

Here is a proposition for the disgruntled actors that want fairness and equal opportunity awards quotas. No problem, all the support they want, so long as they will also lobby for more white guys in the NBA, oh, and shorter ones as well. Hey, fairness swings both ways or it's not fair, it's preferential treatment.

[evadgib]

I seem to recall '12 years a slave' cleaning up (no pun intended) in 2014.

I could go on about the MOBO's too but I guess that deserves a separate thread.

[i claudius]

So what about the diversity for Native American actors , also Italian ones , then of course the Irish have been around in America a long time ,and don't get me started about there not being enough disabled actors and actresses getting major parts in films , I know they wanted a black James Bond , but how about a midget one ?

[sirineou]

I have never watched the show, and I dont watch many movies. So I dont understand the controversy.

Were there some African American actors or directors who gave a stellar performance in a movie, that deserved nomination and was not nominated?

[fred Kubasa]

Really ? They certainly invite many white girls to compete in the Miss Black America beauty contest and a whole lot of white policemen to join the Black Police Officers Uniion in Chicago and other

whites to attend the Black Mayors group or the Black Policician's Caucas in Washington !

[lungmi]

A Trumped show, what do want more?

[jesimps]

They appear to have a black version of every other activity so why not a Black Oscars? They can then pretend that they're the best on merit.

Me? Never watch it so don't give a toss about the lovies, black or white.

[bangon04]

"UCLA surveyed film and TV executives and found that 96 percent are white."

and how many Jewish? Since tokenism is so important......

[mgjackson69]

A Trumped show, what do want more?

Wow...only 10 posts until someone dragged unrelated politics into the conversation.

[lungbing]

Where's the transgender ones? It's a long time since "Tootsy" and "Mrs. Doubtfire".

[ggt]

Do like the US education system and youth sports in American has had to do over the years...give everyone a free pass in education and a trophe in sports...because the liberals do not want the minorities to feel bad...

So give all these actors and actress that did not win an Oscar...give them an Oscar...cheapen the experience...make the Oscars irrelevant...

Everyone is a crybaby in the US these days...there is no striving for excellence...the US is striving for equality...or should we say...mediocrity...IMHO

[mgjackson69]

Do like the US education system and youth sports in American has had to do over the years...give everyone a free pass in education and a trophe in sports...because the liberals do not want the minorities to feel bad...

So give all these actors and actress that did not win an Oscar...give them an Oscar...cheapen the experience...make the Oscars irrelevant...

Everyone is a crybaby in the US these days...there is no striving for excellence...the US is striving for equality...or should we say...mediocrity...IMHO

That is my home country, and we are complete agreement.

Rather than teach our children that they have to strive to succeed, instead we give them all trophies so their little feelings do not get hurt.

All that teaches them is that they can slack off and get the same as someone who tries hard. And reinforces that sense of entitlement that so many of our young folk seem to have now.

[connda]

The Oscars should be awarded based on this formula:

Non-Hispanic White 196,817,552 63.7 % Non-Hispanic Black 37,685,848 12.2 % Non-Hispanic Asian 14,465,124 4.7 % Non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native 2,247,098 0.7 % Non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 481,576 0.2 % Non-Hispanic some other race 604,265 0.2 % Non-Hispanic two or more races 5,966,481 1.9 % Hispanic or Latino 50,477,594 16.4 %

So whites should get no more than 63.7% of the Oscars, otherwise it's racist.

OMG, is the US that freaking PC? lmao! No wonder I left and married a 'brown' women in Thailand. Although I've been called a racist base on the colour of my skin on many occasions along with numerous epitaphs like honkey, cracker, and so forth. I don't miss that zoo. The brown and black people I associate outside the US don't have inferiority complexes. Thank God.

Edited January 20, 2016 by connda

[Andreas2]

Since I learnt last year that gender AND race is not a question of biology anymore but a state of mind, I'm soooo confused - but also hopeful:

Would it count, for example, if Leonardo DiCaprio declared himself to be a black woman caught in a white male body, so that at least some of these black whiners could reconsider their decision and attend the Oscar show? I really feel so bad if one these poor millionaires would miss one of the most important self-promotion events of the year. What a loss, for them and the show.

Please, Leonardo, give them a reason to not end up in desperation... or even worse. Leonardo, give them back their self-confidence and pride, let them root for you! Just remember: To be proud to be black is not racist. Be strong, be honest, do your outing!

Edited January 20, 2016 by Andreas2

[overherebc]

So what about the diversity for Native American actors , also Italian ones , then of course the Irish have been around in America a long time ,and don't get me started about there not being enough disabled actors and actresses getting major parts in films , I know they wanted a black James Bond , but how about a midget one ?

Now that would be a movie I would watch if it was made by Mel Brooks.

Blazing Saddles.

The best one ever.