Remember the Oscars last year? Of course you do. It’s where one of the most popular actors of the last quarter century may have permanently torched his career. After Will Smith “smacked the sh*t” out of Chris Rock it was put chaos, with no one sure how to remedy the situation. (One way? Give the perpetrator an Oscar 20 minutes later.) But this year, should something like it happen again, they’re ready. Maybe.
In a new interview with Time (as caught by Deadline), AMPAS chief Bill Kramer revealed they’re not taking chances this year, having implemented a “ whole crisis team” ready to intervene should there be some kind of copycat violence. Kramer said “we have a whole crisis team, something we’ve never had before, and many plans in place. We’ve run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we’re planning for just in case it does happen.”
Kramer added:
“Because of last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars. But these crisis plans — the crisis communication teams and structures we have in place — allow us to say, ‘This is the group that we have to gather very quickly. This is how we all come together. This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement.’ And obviously, depending on the specifics of the crisis, and let’s hope something doesn’t happen and we never have to use these, but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify.”
Of course, the Oscars are no stranger to freak occurrences. They’ve had a streaker. They’ve had Sean Penn making a racist joke (about a friend, but still). They’ve had Adrien Brody forcibly kissing Halle Berry. They’ve had the Sacheen Littlefeather acceptance speech. They’ve had “Adele Dazeem.” And of course, they’ve had the wrong Best Picture winner called out. The slap is arguably the most shocking of all, but if there is going to be some unforeseen jaw-dropper at this year’s show, don’t let it be violence. Maybe it can be more along the lines of some dude running around nekkid, showing off his “shortcomings.”
