Stephen King Urges Oscars to Cancel, Prompting Backlash

Hollywood Reporter

Stephen King wants to banish this year’s Oscars to the dead zone.
King is the latest celebrity to urge the top film Academy to cancel the awards in the wake of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
“Not voting in the Oscars this year,” King wrote on Bluesky, the social platform he joined after ditching X recently.
No glitz with Los Angeles on fire.” To be clear, the Academy has no intention of canceling the show.
The case for moving forward with the Oscars goes like this: Canceling an awards show doesn’t really help anyone.

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The Oscars this year should be banished to the dead zone, according to Stephen King.

In the wake of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, King is the most recent celebrity to call on the top film academy to cancel the awards.

“I’m not going to vote in the Oscars this year,” King wrote on Bluesky, the social media site he recently joined after leaving X. “I think they ought to cancel them. No glamour when Los Angeles is burning. “”.

To be clear, the Academy has no plans to end the program. The 2025 Academy Awards ceremony is still scheduled for March 2, as The Hollywood Reporter exclusively revealed yesterday.

This is the argument in favor of the Oscars continuing: No one really benefits from the cancellation of an awards ceremony. However, those affected by the fires would gain from utilising the enormous and worldwide Oscars viewing platform to aid in the fundraising of causes related to wildfires. The idea of canceling the Oscars, therefore, seems more like a last-minute attempt to put an end to a joyous occasion than a sensible one. Hollywood loves to unite behind a good cause, so it’s hard to imagine the Oscars not making a concerted effort to help wildfire victims and not look out of place after the tragedy.

“As THR reported, the general consensus among the Academy’s leadership is that the show should continue — in a dignified way that would help to raise funds for and celebrate fire relief efforts.”. “.”.

Jean Smart, star of Hacks, previously proposed ending the show, which regularly attracts 20 million viewers, and giving “the revenue they would have gathered to the victims of the fires and the firefighters.”. “”.

There was some backlash against both Smart’s and King’s posts. Readers overwhelmingly opposed the idea of canceling the show, even among his supporters in the left-leaning Bluesky.

One person wrote, “The [awards show] workers had months, YEARS without pay due to COVID, then to union negotiations.”. “And the fires now.”. You’re mistaken about this. Help the sector. “”.

Another person said, “America needs a good diversion from all the pain and suffering we’re going through on a daily basis.”. Show business is what that is. This is something you ought to be aware of. It must continue. “.”.

And it is expected to do so.

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