Kevin Hart is definitely not hosting the Oscars this year. No one is, in fact. Though The Academy is trying to get The Avengers to save the day, there won’t be an official host this year.
That’s partially because Hart, who was first announced as host after reports that the award show was struggling to find a host for the ceremony, immediately fell into hot water when homophobic tweets surfaced and were widely circulated. Hart first dug in his heels, then apologized to those he offended and resigned as host.
Since then, Hart has sort of dug in his heels once more. He says he won’t apologize again, and says he’s “over it.” Hart comes off, quite frankly, as bitter that people criticized him using homophobic language and that, all at once, his chance to host the Oscars vanished. And at least one friend of Hart’s — actor Terry Crews — says he needs to reevaluate the situation a bit.
Crews spoke to Buzzfeed News’s morning show AM to DM and said that Hart needs to realize that, despite his own instincts, he’s not the true victim of his words.
“He feels like he’s being attacked,” Crews said during an interview on BuzzFeed News’ Twitter morning show AM to DM. “But the truth is, he’s not.”
“The truth is, Kevin, you’re not being attacked,” Crews continued. “The truth is you have to just acknowledge what went on and acknowledge the pain of other people. That’s all anybody’s asking for. That’s it.”
Crews compared Hart’s reaction to the controversy to an interpersonal conflict between he and his wife.
“Then all of a sudden you can get hardened,” he said, “but the hard part is when you put down the defenses and you say, ‘Wait a minute, I’m not listening.'”
Crews is trying to give Hart some valid advice here, though it’s being delivered through the media. It’s been his default reaction to lash out at critics rather than listen to what they’re saying and reevaluate his language. The reason those jokes and homophobic language offended people in the first place is something he hasn’t really addressed — he’s simply used the default “sorry if that offended anyone.” Digging up old tweets is something that’s going to happen again and again, for better or worse. But the reason Hart’s controversy continues to make news is that it doesn’t seem like he’s learned much of anything from it, other than that hosting the Oscars might be more trouble than it’s worth.
