Call it adding insult to injury, call it adding fuel to the fire, or call it at the very least, a misunderstanding that hopefully will be corrected in a week or so. But, the bonfire of disgust that is the #OscarsSoWhite controversy has had another log thrown onto the pile.
TMZ reports that the cast and crew of Straight Outta Compton, including one of the film’s producers, Ice Cube, didn’t receive invitations to the 2016 Academy Awards, scheduled for February 28. The only people invited from the film will be the two screenwriters, Andrea Berloff and Jonathan Herman. The writers, both of whom are white, are nominated for Best Original Screenplay. It’s the only nomination the N.W.A. biopic received, despite a slew of predictions that it would be nominated for Best Picture, among other awards.
Unless you’ve been either living under a rock or… well, that’s probably the only way you wouldn’t know about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy at this point, the nominations for this year’s Oscars has caused a sizable uproar, as the nominations feature a shockingly low amount of diversity for the second time in as many years. No African-American actors were nominated in any of the four acting categories and the films nominated for Best Picture are, well, what’s the best way to say this, pretty white, dude. There have been calls for boycotts, a multitude of think pieces discussing the state of minorities in film, and questionable statements on the subject made by folks on both sides of the aisle. So, given the current state of things and the delicacy of the subject, no one from Straight Outta Compton even being invited to this year’s ceremony is what we’d categorize as not a good look for the Academy.
Of course, the full list of invitees has yet to be officially released, so this could either be a false rumor or an uncomfortable truth that can now be quickly fixed. Either way, if it was a mistake and the cast and crew are invited, or if the Academy reverses courses and does extend an invite, don’t expect Ice Cube to be there.
Ice Cube does plan on attending both the SAG Awards and the NAACP Image Awards, both of which nominated Straight Outta Compton. So far, the movie has grossed more than $162 million worldwide.
