Oscars: Academy sets up a crisis team after the slap scandal

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Will Smith beats Chris Rock

PHOTO: BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERS

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which hosts the annual Oscars, is prepared for all surprises this year.

Bill Kramer, the Academy's CEO, said in an interview with Time magazine that a "crisis team" had been set up for this year's gala.

It should help to find quick answers to unexpected events during the live show.

"We have a crisis team, something like this hasn't existed before, and a lot of plans in the drawer," Kramer told Time.

»We went through many scenarios.

So it's our hope that we're prepared for anything we can't even anticipate right now."

Last year's scandal when Will Smith came onstage to slap Chris Rock after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, opened the Academy's eyes: "All sorts of things can happen at the Oscars," he said Chandler.

With the crisis team, there are clear responsibilities for all eventualities: "We hope that nothing happens and we don't have to use it".

Kramer also has high hopes for Jimmy Kimmel as the presenter of the show.

"It's so important to have a host who knows how to deal with live broadcasts and a hall audience," says Kramer.

Kimmel is funny and respectful, he has rough edges, but not too sharp.

Bill Kramer has been in office at the helm of the Academy since July.

His predecessors could have reacted more quickly to the slap in the face, he says in the interview, both on the evening itself and afterwards.

The new structure is an answer to this.

She has already proven herself in the debate about Andrea Riseborough's surprising nomination for best actress.

Neither the film »To Leslie«, in which Riseborough, 41, plays the leading role, nor she herself was among the favorites of bookmakers, critics or the nominations and awards ceremonies.

Nevertheless, Riseborough was able to prevail against prominent candidates such as Viola Davis ("The Woman King") among the approximately 10,000 members of the Oscar Academy, including around 1,300 decisive actors and actresses in this category.

The cause is a grassroots campaign that is as good as unprecedented in Hollywood history.

The Academy reviewed the nominations.

The result was that this decision will not be reversed.

The controversial, massive campaigns for Riseborough in online networks are cause for "concern," the Oscar Academy said.

However, these "did not reach a level that would require the cancellation of the nomination".

Feb