On his nightly talk show, Jimmy Kimmel typically doesn’t shy away from commenting on any topic that piques his interest: He skewers President Donald Trump and speaks out about health care access and gun control reform on a regular basis.
But when he takes the stage on Sunday as the host of the Oscars for the second year in a row, Kimmel says there’s one topic that he won’t be talking about. In an interview with ABC News’s Paula Faris that aired Thursday, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host revealed that he has no plans to address the #MeToo or Time’s Up movements at the ceremony.
“Here’s the thing: This show is not about reliving people’s sexual assaults. It’s an awards show for people who have been dreaming about maybe winning an Oscar for their whole lives,” Kimmel said. “And the last thing I want to do is ruin that for someone who is, you know, nominated for, you know, best leading actress or best supporting or best director or cinematographer, or whatever, by making it unpleasant.” He added, “I’m not going to stop any bad behaviour with my jokes.”
On the one hand, I can understand Kimmel’s reasoning. When Seth Meyers tried to work the movement against workplace sexual misconduct into his monologue at the Golden Globe Awards in early January, his efforts were largely criticized on Twitter. Not only were viewers unimpressed with Meyers’s seeming to trivialize such an important movement by joking about it, but they also didn’t love the fact that it was a white man telling those jokes—especially because most of the powerful people knocked from their pedestals by #MeToo and Time’s Up were, in fact, white men.
On the other hand, though, Kimmel’s refusal to even mention #MeToo or Time’s Up, both of which have been given a very visible platform by the very women who will be sitting in the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, will certainly draw criticism. The topic of sexual assault and harassment has been at the forefront of practically every conversation about and within Hollywood since the initial reports against Harvey Weinstein broke nearly five months ago. Failing to mention the movement is basically the equivalent of ignoring the biggest, most dangerous elephant in the room.
Hosting any Hollywood event during this tumultuous, history-making time is undoubtedly a tough job for anyone. We’ll have to tune into Sunday night’s broadcast to see just how he handles walking the tightrope between going too far and not saying enough.
Taken from GLAMOUR US. Click here to read the original.
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