National Guard in at Oscars, Will Smith Out
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The state of California on Thursday assigned a National Guard unit to protect the Oscars, but at least one prominent star withdrew from the ceremonies, saying now was not the time to celebrate.
Actor Will Smith pulled out of Sunday’s scheduled Oscars show while other stars announced plans to wear peace sign pins, doves and even duct tape to protest the war in Iraq.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said on Thursday it was still planning to go ahead, for now, with the ceremony — minus the glitzy red carpet — but a final decision was not expected before Friday.
Meanwhile, California authorities said that they would station a National Guard unit at the ceremonies, equipped with a mobile testing laboratory that could quickly detect any chemical or biological threat.
“I can say the Academy Awards will be as safe and secure as any awards ceremony ever held,” California Gov. Gray Davis said in announcing the security measures at a press conference.
He said having the National Guard unit and testing facility at the Oscars would mean that the ceremonies would not be interrupted if threats were made against its stars.
“The value to the Los Angeles Police Department is that the lab can get results within 30 minutes,” he said.
Smith, star of “Men in Black,” was scheduled to present an award at the show. He withdrew before the U.S. bombing campaign in Iraq got underway in earnest on Thursday.
“He felt uncomfortable in attending and respectfully asked to be excused. There’s no agenda, there’s no speeches. He just didn’t feel personally comfortable in going because of the world situation,” said his publicist, Stan Rosenfield.
Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, who is nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar for “The Man Without a Past,” said he would stay home in a protest against the war in Iraq.
Artists United to Win Without War — a group of more than 130 celebrities who have campaigned against war — has produced a special peace pin for the event. Artists including Dustin Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Jim Carrey, Ben Affleck, Michael Moore and Kirsten Dunst have agreed to wear it on awards night.
Others plan to wear a peace dove or a piece of duct tape on their gowns or tuxedos.
Duct tape has become a tongue-in-cheek symbol of protest, after ridicule greeted government advice to buy it along with plastic sheeting to set up temporary safe rooms in case of chemical or biological attack.
“People are looking to express in a dignified way their feelings and emotions,” producer Robert Greenwald, founder of Artists United, told Reuters. Oscar organizers said they decided to cut out the traditional red carpet — where stars parade their opinions along with their gowns — because several celebrities had expressed unease about that part of the show at the start of a major war.
They denied reports that winners had been told to keep their political opinions to themselves in their speeches during the show itself, although organizers said they expected presenters to stick to the script.
Greenwald said he was unaware of any mass move by stars to boycott the ceremony, if it goes ahead. He said celebrities, like other Americans, were struggling to find a balance between life as usual and their personal response to the war.
“The Oscars epitomize that. It is a heightened version of regular life. The question of what people think they should do or not do around the Oscars are symbolic of a series of questions that people are struggling with as to what they are going to be doing in their lives around the war,” he said.
Categories