Affleck ducks out of Oscars
THE Oscars just dodged another #MeToo bullet after James Franco was snubbed for “The Disaster Artist.” Last year’s Best Actor Oscar winner Casey Affleck — accused of settling two sexual harassment lawsuits — has pulled out of the awards show as a presenter.
Affleck picked up the Academy Award last year for Best Actor in “Manchester by the Sea.” The winner in the category traditionally hands out the Best Actress trophy a year later.
Even well before the Harvey Weinstein scandal rocked Hollywood and opened a floodgate of harassment allegations, Affleck was in the hot seat for settling two sexual harassment lawsuits against him by women who worked on the set of his 2010 film “I’m Still Here.” Affleck denied the allegations and settled the suits out of court. But nowsuch settlements — which bar the alleged victims and the accused from speaking out publicly about the case — have become a focus of the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up initiative to fight sexual harassment in Hollywood. Affleck has said, “I believe that any kind of mistreatment of anyone for any reason is unacceptable and abhorrent.”
Sources said the star, and the Academy, wanted to avoid any controversy. Hollywood blog Deadline reported that Affleck “was in a no-win situation . . . The specter of Affleck presenting would have created controversy.” His rep confirmed he would not attend and the Academy seemed to applaud the move, telling us in a statement, “We appreciate the decision to keep the focus on the show and on the great work of this year.”
Last year, after winning, Affleck had an awkward moment onstage at the Oscars when actress and victims-rights advocate Brie Larson was the presenter, and looked displeased and didn’t applaud. She later said, “Whatever it was that I did onstage kind of spoke for itself.”
And who knows what the winner of the Best Actress award this year would have done if they’d been handed an Oscar by Affleck? The nominees include formidable front-runner Frances McDormand, Meryl Streep, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan and Sally Hawkins.