Canadian academy member raises concerns about Oscars diversity reforms

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson sit down exclusively with The Hollywood Reporter for this week’s issue of the magazine, to tackle all aspects of the #OscarsSoWhite discussion, including Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith’s boycott.

“There have been people … selected as members of the Academy, they were working in the film industry at that time … and they’ve moved on to a completely different field”, said Ms Hudson of the lifetime voting rights that have caused controversy over the years. The Academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose. The show is a big red carpet event that draws in the most famous celebrities in the world, but this year could see a lot fewer faces than previous years.

Some are calling for a boycott of this year’s Academy Awards on February 28 because no acting nominees were black. But this gave us an opportunity to make it more public and let everybody know it’s not that we’re just listening, we listened awhile ago and we’ve been at this for a while. In the wake of a second straight year of all-white acting nominees – and calls for a boycott of the Oscars broadcast – the 51-member board unanimously voted to revamp membership rules in an effort to change the makeup of the largely white, male and older association of some 7,000 exclusive members. Directors Guild of America president Paris Barclay in a statement said “structural changes” were needed in Hollywood to change hiring practices.

Whoopi Goldberg said a boycott isn’t fair to host Chris Rock. “I can’t help but ask the question – Is it time that people of color recognize how much power, infl uence that we have amassed?” “I’ve been a script doctor, character designer, and storyboard artist on three unproduced theatrical pictures”, Beiman, 58, wrote in her letter to the academy, noting she’s been a professional animator for 37 years.

In an attempt to rescue their legacy from the dark pit of irrelevance, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors voted to implement a four-year plan that would double the number of “women and diverse members” in its voting pool.

What are your views on the Oscars racism row? “And we knew we were going to have to speak to this issue”. He is a brilliant, observant comedian and performer, and he is a brilliant host.

“The Academy is tradition-bound, it is rule-bound, it is not trying to be politically correct, never has been”, she told the outlet. Way before this (diversity issue took hold), our selection of Chris was to bring some edge and some fun and some amusing – intelligent funny – to the telecast.

“We’re uncomfortable to stand there and say that this is OK”, Smith told Robin Roberts, before joking, “My wife’s not going”.