Free Republic

Chris Rock will return to the stage for his ongoing comedy tour this week, after being slapped by Will Smith on the Oscars stage Sunday night over a joke he made about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The on-screen altercation is one of the most dramatic unplanned events to occur in Academy Awards history, made even more peculiar by Smith accepting the award for best actor less than an hour after his outburst. However, the dramatic moment did seem to inspire some viewers to buy tickets to see Rock perform live; one secondary ticketing marketplace, TickPick, reports that they...

Chris Rock's may have landed himself in hot water with Oscar bosses as his joke about Jada Pinkett Smith was reportedly unvetted before the live show. The comedian, 57, was slapped in the face by Jada's husband Will, 53, after he stormed on stage when Chris jokingly compared her haircut to G.I. Jane. A source told Us Weekly that Chris initially rehearsed his speech with no mention of Jada. The insider added: 'Will was not in attendance for [the] rehearsal.' While on stage, Chris said: 'Jada, GI Jane 2, I can't wait to see it', which prompted Will to step...

CNN’s Asha Rangappa decided the Dolby Theater crowd stuck around because of Trump. "So did like anyone walk out after that happened??? Or are we getting an independent psychological case study on how Trump got normalized?" Rangappa asked on Twitter. Rangappa was swiftly mocked for blaming Trump for the incident.

The producers behind the 94th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday night have drawn fire from critics who called it “insensitive” to accompany two black presenters as they took the stage at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles with Toto’s “Africa.” Toto’s “Africa” played as British actor Daniel Kaluuya and singer H.E.R., both of whom claimed Oscars in 2021, strolled into the spotlights to present best supporting actress. Some argued the 1982 song was a less than stellar choice to introduce two black presenters, the Hollywood Reporter pointed out and others agreed on social media.

I understand Will Smith smacked Chris Rock live onstage at the Oscars last night because Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife’s (Jada Pinket-Smith) hair.I guess without President Donald Trump to curse at and kick around it was inevitable that they turn on each other. Maybe we should just cancel the Academy Awards until we elect someone they all hate again.Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

Bad blood between Chris Rock and Will Smith flowed long before the “King Richard” star took a swing at the 2022 Oscars. In 2016, the stand-up comic hosted the Academy Awards, where both Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, were the butts of some pointed barbs. Rock made fun of Pinkett Smith’s public avowal to boycott the show after another year of all-white acting nominees. “Jada said she’s not coming. I was like, ‘Isn’t she on a TV show?’ Jada’s gonna boycott the Oscars? Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited!” he quipped...

In a truly shocking moment, Will Smith just smacked Chris Rock in the face after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith at The Oscars. Chris was up on stage Sunday presenting for Best Documentary, but before he started naming the nominees ... he was firing off zingers to the crowd, and eventually landed on Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. Chris made a comment about Jada's shaved head ... saying he couldn't wait to see 'G.I. Jane 2' -- which got some groans from the crowd, to which he just sorta shrugged off. Chris didn't think he'd crossed...

Actor Sean Penn said Saturday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that the Academy Awards should be boycotted if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to speak virtually. Acosta said, “The Oscars are tomorrow night. Do you want to see President Zelensky speak at the Oscars via some sort of video link? How do you think the ceremony, how the event should recognize what is happening in Ukraine? What would you say, I guess, if you were there up on stage?”

Actor Sean Penn says he will destroy his Academy Award if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy isn't allowed to speak during the broadcast.In an interview with CNN, Penn, 61, said having Zelenskyy speak during Sunday's broadcast was of the utmost importance."There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than to give him that opportunity to talk to all of us," Penn said.

Actor and director Sean Penn said Saturday that if the Academy Awards planners said no to a virtual appearance by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, people should consider boycotting the awards show altogether. During an appearance with CNN’s Jim Acosta, Penn — who is currently in Warsaw, Poland — said that if producers turned down the chance to have Zelensky appear, it would be “the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history,” and he promised to “smelt” his own Oscars in public if that was what it took to drive the point home.

Everyone has a theory about the decline of the Academy Awards, the sinking ratings that have led to endless Oscar reinventions. The show is too long; no, the show is too desperate to pander to short attention spans. The movies are too woke; no, the academy voters aren’t diverse enough. Hollywood makes too many superhero movies; no, the academy doesn’t nominate enough superhero movies. (A querulous voice from the back row: Why can’t they just bring back Billy Crystal?) My favored theory is that the Oscars are declining because the movies they were made to showcase have been slowly disappearing....

Former head writer Bruce Vilanch on what we're about to witness — and some seriously fun A-list dish along the wayBruce Vilanch is a legendary Emmy-winning comedy writer, songwriter and actor in Hollywood. He was also a writer for 24 years on the Academy Awards broadcast, spending 14 of those years (2000-2014) as the show’s head writer. Vilanch collaborated with hosts including Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, David Letterman, Steve Martin and, of course, James Franco and Anne Hathaway. In this episode of the Ankler Hot Seat podcast, a special bonus edition for Oscar week, Vilanch, who will be watching the...

Amy Schumer is co-hosting the 94th Academy Awards with Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes, and she’s revealed at least one idea she planned for the upcoming ceremony: having Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appear during the ceremony via satellite or a pre-taped video segment. The 2022 Oscars will take place while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, and many celebrities have raises millions of dollars for Ukrainian aid. “I think there is definitely pressure in one way to be like, ‘This is a vacation, let people forget we just want to have this night,’ but it is like, ‘Well we have so...

Multiple reports hold that this year’s Oscars won’t require vaccines in part because some nominees aren’t vaccinated>P One of the more baffling news reports this week is that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will not be requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for attendees of the 2022 Oscars. And on Thursday night during his opening monologue, Jimmy Kimmel joked that it’s time to “wildly speculate” about who precisely the Academy is catering to. “Let the witch hunt begin,” he joked. So, in case you’re catching up, supposedly, despite having a vaccine mandate for all employees, the Academy has ditched a...

At a time when parents are waking up to the threat of critical race theory in schools, Hollywood is doubling down on it. In fact, they’re eating their own. Just read the primary criticism of the latest work of Lin-Manuel Miranda—a man who literally cast black and Hispanic actors as America’s founding fathers in Hamilton: the actors playing Dominican characters aren’t dark enough. After catering to a smaller and smaller group of coastal elites, La-La Land is finally collapsing into itself under the weight of the political left’s own contradictions. It’s not enough for the left to set the agenda....

Hollywood elite targeted police officers in their acceptance speeches at Sunday’s Academy Awards as they were being protected by cops. Now, LAPD officials are returning the favor by clapping back at the award-winning hypocrisy.

Just as we at OutKick predicted, the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony tanked to unimaginable lows. The 2021 Oscars fell more than 50% year-over-year in overnight ratings, OutKick has learned. Here’s a look at the past three years: 2021: 8.9/19 2020: 18.1/33 2019: 21.6/36

Making Academy Awards history in the most awkward way imaginable, Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar for best actor for his performance in “The Father,” becoming the oldest winner ever. Hopkins, however, was not on hand to accept the award, which for the first time in Oscars history was placed at the very end of the telecast, after “Nomadland” had won best picture and Frances McDormand took home best actress. Presenter Joaquin Phoenix instead had to accept the award on Hopkins’ behalf, providing an altogether abrupt and anti-climatic conclusion to the most unusual Academy Awards ceremony in modern history. It is...

Oscar winner and multiple Emmy winner Cloris Leachman, best remembered as the delightfully neurotic Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and her own subsequent sitcom, died of natural causes on Tuesday in Encinitas, Calif. She was 94. “It’s been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time,” her longtime manager Juliet Green said. “There was no one like Cloris. With a single look she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh ’till the tears ran down your face. You never knew what Cloris was going to...

As promised when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its Academy Aperture 2025 initiative in June, new standards of representation and inclusion have been announced by AMPAS today that will gradually be put in place for the 94th (2022) and 95th (2023) Oscars, but in full effect beginning with the 96th Academy Awards in 2024. In its most dramatic swing towards true diversity, Oscar is laying down significant requirements in order to be eligible for Hollywood’s most sought after prize: Best Picture. Having at least one Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, Black/African American, Indigenous/Native American/Alaskan Native, Middle Eastern/North African, Native...