And the Oscar goes to…
Will Smith’s Oscars process is at a standoff: As Smith’s fate in The Slap is set to be decided today, the Academy board is reportedly at odds over whether to strip the Hancock actor of the Best Actor award .
“The members — of which there are over 9,000 with hundreds of WhatsApp groups flying around — are completely divided,” an LA source told the Sun of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hearing. The Tinseltown tribunal was originally scheduled to meet on April 18 but was postponed to today following the 54-year-old’s retirement from the academy.
Smith, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in King Richard, slammed Oscars host Chris Rock after the 57-year-old comedian made a “bald” quip about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia.
“The decision was made earlier this week to expedite the hearing following Will’s resignation,” the source explained. “And during that call it was clear that the decision would go to the line.”
Smith later apologized and resigned from the Academy.Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
Will Smith smacks Chris Rock onto the stage during the 94th Annual Academy Awards.Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
After several calls with “various members and certain governors over the past ten days,” the 54-strong jury — including 24 women — remains in a 50-50 deadlock over the verdict, according to the watchdog.
“The governors themselves are also said to be at odds,” the source said, adding that the board felt it was hypocritical to lift Smith’s statuette since “convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein and fugitive child rapist Roman Polanski” have still not been disrobed.
“But frankly, as we all know, Hollywood is a law unto itself,” lamented the source.
To date, the Academy has only stripped one Oscar: Young Americans had its award for Best Documentary of 1969 stripped after the board determined the film had been released in 1967.