A few months ago Sean Penn gave Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky one of his Oscars and even offered to have it dwstroyed by the Ukrainian President – saying his gift was inspired by his “continuing shame towards the Motion Picture Academy.”
He called the gift of the statuette “a small gesture, symbolic between two friends – inspired by my continuing shame towards the leadership of the Motion Picture Academy in choosing to present Will Smith smacking Chris Rock rather than the greatest symbol of cinema and humanity living today. Their loss.”
Penn’s beef with the Academy has to do with their refusal to invite Zelensky to appear at the 2022 Oscars, saying at the time: “There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than to give him that opportunity to talk to all of us… It is my understanding that a decision has been made not to do it.”
Well, maybe Penn should give Zelensky his other Oscar as well because, according to Variety, the Academy has again rejected Zelensky’s request to speak at this coming Sunday’s ceremony.
Per Variety:
Zelensky’s overtures to the Oscars comes as polls show Americans’ support for providing assistance to Ukraine has weakened.
Last year, Oscars producer Will Packer had also declined a Zelensky appearance, but his reason wasn’t due to the war’s unpopularity in some circles, but rather because of Hollywood only paying attention to Ukraine, a conflict that primarily affects white people. Adding that we are ignoring wars around the globe that impact people of color.
Zelensky was invited to have a pre-recorded speech at every other big film event including Cannes, Venice, Berlin and the Golden Globes.
Penn gave one of his two Best Actor Oscars to Zelensky last year after the pair became friends during the filming of the documentary “Superpower”. The actor has visited Ukraine at least a dozen times since the war with Russia begun on February 24th, 2022.
No word yet on which Oscar statuette Penn gave. He won one in 2004 for “Mystic River” and again in 2009 for “Milk.” If I were Penn, I would choose to burn the “Milk” Oscar since Mickey Rourke actually deserved to win that year for “The Wrestler.”