Oscars 2023 has a ‘crisis team’ on hand to thwart a sequel to the infamous slap

While we’d venture to say that a recurrence is unlikely, it’ll likely be talked about early and often. Kimmel has already indicated that it will feature in his opening monologue. In an interview with USA Today, he said that he had been “studying the martial arts since they asked me to host the show”.

“They had some kind of crisis management meeting where I guess they dream up scenarios that we might face, but no one has filled me on in on any of that. So if there is a crisis, I’ll be the only one left in the dark,” he added.

A “crisis team”‘ CEO Bill Kramer told Time magazine in February, had been put in place for the first time in Academy history to handle ‘surprise moments’ in future events. The new team has run many a scenarios in preparation to hopefully be ready to handle ‘anything’.

“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,” he told the publication.

It is pertinent to note here that Will Smith will not be attending the Oscars this year, having been banned for a decade after striking Chris Rock at last year’s ceremony. Meanwhile, Rock finally punched back at Smith with a blistering stand-up set about the incident during a live Netflix special on Saturday.

The comedian bragged that he “took that hit like Pacquiao” and touched upon “wokeness,” hypersensitivity and what he called “selective outrage.”

“You never know who might get triggered. Anybody who says words hurt hasn’t been punched in the face,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)