New Delhi: After the infamous incident of Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony, the Academy will have a ‘crisis team’ this year. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer told in an interview with Time Magazine that they have created a new ‘crisis team’ for Oscars 2023 to quickly deal with any potential real-time emergency situation.
Kramer said that they now have a crisis team, which they have never had before. He hopes that the management is prepared for any unanticipated situation. He cited the incident that happened last year as the reason behind it and said that the crisis communication teams and structures are to gather quickly and indicated that this time the statement would not take long to come out.
During Oscars 2022, Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head, which she shaved due to an alopecia diagnosis. Smith went on the stage to slap Rock and asked him to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
While Smith won the Best Actor award for ‘King Richard’ that night, he resigned from the Academy later. It took the Academy a few more days to issue their response to revoke the actor’s AMPAS membership and ban him from attending the ceremonies for 10 years.
AMPAS president Janet Yang also recently acknowledged that their response was not swift and adequate. She assured of a swift, compassionate and decisive response in future.
The Oscars 2023 will take place on March 12 and you can catch up on the telecast on ABC.
