Stephen King calls for Academy Awards cancellation
Stephen King has called for the Oscars to be cancelled amid the Los Angeles wildfires and insisted he won't be voting this year.
Stephen King has called for the Oscars to be cancelled amid the Los Angeles wildfires.
The 77-year-old author insisted he won't be casting any votes this year as he urged the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to ditch this year's ceremony as he doesn't feel it is appropriate for such a "glitzy" event to take place while people have lost their homes.
He wrote on Bluesky: “Not voting in the Oscars this year. IMHO they should cancel them. No glitz with Los Angeles on fire."
The Academy Awards nominations announcement has already been delayed due to the fires, with the voting period extended until 5pm PT on 17 January ahead of the shortlists being revealed on 23 January, with the ceremony scheduled for 3 March.
Jean Smart previously called for networks not to televise upcoming awards shows due to the fires and instead urged TV bosses to donate the revenue such broadcasts would have raised to the victims and firefighters affected by the blazes.
She wrote on Instagram: "Attention! With ALL due respect, during Hollywood’s season of celebration, I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have garnered to victims of the fires and the firefighters.(sic)"
Although the 73-year-old star didn't single out anything by name, the Academy Awards, the Critics Choice Awards - which have been postponed by two weeks until 26 January because of the fires - and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards are due to be broadcast by ABC, E! and Netflix respectively.
The Oscar nominations were initially postponed by two days until 19 January after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences opted to extend the voting period because "so many" of its members - believed to be around 6,000 of its 10,000 - are based in the affected area, but it was later delayed again.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, in a letter regarding voting for the Academy Awards, the organisation initially said: "We want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been impacted by the devastating fires across Southern California.
"So many of our members and industry colleagues live and work in the Los Angeles area, and we are thinking of you.'
"'Given the fire situation, we want to share some updates regarding an extension to the Oscars nominations voting window as well as updated information on Oscars Shortlist Screenings, Oscars Bake-Offs, and the Academy Museum.
"Nominations voting for the 97th Oscars opened this morning at 9am PT.
"We will be extending the voting window by two days to give members more time to cast their ballots."
