It's tradition for the prior year's Best Actor winner to present the current year's Best Actress winner with her Academy Award. This year that would have presented quite the awkward scenario since that would mean Casey Affleck would have been handing out the statue, and in the current #MeToo/#TimesUp climate that wasn't going to fly. Affleck has been gracious, or perhaps embarrassed, enough to stop this before it became a public spectacle.
Deadline reports Affleck has dropped out of his presenting slot at the Oscars, with the Manchester by the Sea star refusing to become a distraction. Good idea.
I'm still a bit salty over Affleck winning last year. Not that his performance wasn't worthy, but the Academy and Hollywood in general overlooked charges of sexual misconduct filed against him by two women connected to his mockumentary, I'm Still Here. Both cases were settled financially. Meanwhile, Nate Parker was raked over the coals for not handling the response to charges made against him two decades earlier, charges of which he was acquitted. The backlash sank him, his film Birth of a Nation which had been an Oscar contender, and possibly destroyed his career. Heard anything from him lately? Nah, you haven't. Affleck has been given a pass, and I could start a much larger discussion as to why. Here's a hint: it ain't got shit to do with his performance.
This is going to be a crazy Oscars, and I'm guessing this isn't the only way the show will be affected. I'll be hosting my usual Oscars Night shindig for DC Film Society and it might be a smart idea to keep some extra jokes in my pocket.
