Casey Affleck Will Not Present at Tonight's Oscars
Every year, the Academy Awards bring back last year's acting winners to symbolically pass the torch to the next crop of honorees (the last Best Actor winner presents this year's Best Actress award, and vice versa).
But Casey Affleck, who won the statue for Best Actor at last year's Oscars, will not be attending tonight's ceremony. Allegations of sexual harassment on the set of Affleck's 2010 film I'm Still Here followed the actor through last year's awards season. He denied them, and they did not hinder his chances at Oscar gold.
But in light of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements sweeping Hollywood, part of the fallout from the New York Times and New Yorker exposés on Harvey Weinstein, Deadline reported in January that Affleck declined to attend the 2018 Oscars in order to "eliminate an awkward situation for the five nominated lead actresses."
In Affleck's place, Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster will present the Best Actress award to tonight's winner, Deadline reports. Additionally, Emma Stone, who won the Best Actress Oscar last year, will not present tonight's Best Actor award. Instead, Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren will present that statue.
Additionally, tonight's ceremony will pointedly honor the Time's Up initiative. Variety reported last week that director Ava DuVernay revealed a "moment [has] been carved out" to call attention to the work of the organization. Time's Up launched in January in order to call attention to the epidemic of sexual harassment in the workplace across the United States and raise money for a legal defense fund for victims.
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