Before Will Smith, These 5 Celebrities Were Also Banned By The Academy

Jimmy
Sep 05, 2022

This year, the 94th Academy Award gained huge attention, not for the attendance of A-listers or winning names, but for the moment Will Smith slapped Chris Rock right on the stage. After the comedian had made a joke at Will's wife Jada Pinkett Smith's expense, Will walked onto the stage and smacked Chris on the face. Although Smith won the Oscar for Best Actor thereafter, his disapproval action sparked a negative public reaction.
The Academy officially banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars for 10 years in the aftermath of his unprofessional behavior that night. That could be so sad as Smith is a talented actor, who makes many impressive roles and drives movies to success. And he actually deserves Oscar awards for his contribution to the cinema industry.
Will Smith is not the only case that incurs the ban from the Academy. In this post, we enlist 5 other celebrities who also got banned due to many reasons. Scroll down to check them out.

#1 Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby is a famous stand-up comedian, actor, and author. Sadly, his career is tarnished by accusations of sexual assault for many years. Although he has what it takes to earn Oscar awards, he is banned from the Academy due to his conviction for three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand in 2018. According to the Academy's rule, they would ban “people who abuse their status, power or influence in a manner that violates standards of decency.”

#2 Carmine Caridi

“The Godfather” star Carmine Caridi was expelled from the Academy in 2004 on the subject of copyright infringement. This is also the first time someone was banned by the Academy. Caridi was caught for bootleg internet copies of Oscar Screeners, which are special DVDs only used by Academy members and critics. Although the accusations against him were dropped, he was still expelled, even till he passed away.

#3 Adam Kimmel

Just like Bill Cosby, Adam Kimmel had a history of being a sex offender. The “Lars and the Real Girl” cinematographer pleaded guilty to assaulting a girl when she was 15 and 16 years old in 2003. He was also involved in a fourth-degree assault on a minor in 2010. He was expelled from the Academy due to his offenses, following the Academy’s rule.

#4 Harvey Weinstein

Another star got banned by the Academy for sexual assault. In 2017, there are many reports by The New York Times, The New Yorker, etc.. about sexual harassment and rape allegations against Weinstein going back decades. NPR even regarded his action as “repugnant, abhorrent, and antithetical to the high standards of the academy and the creative community it represents.”
In fact, more votes were cast in favor of the producer's expulsion than the necessary two-thirds majority. Several well-known actresses had spoken out against him.

#5 Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski is one of the most controversial cases of The Academy. Even though the director was unable to attend the award ceremony, he received multiple nominations and two awards. He had left the country, which is why he wasn't present at the award ceremony.
The reason is that the directors had admitted guilt in the 1977 case involving having illicit intercourse with a minor. He fled to Paris to avoid being imprisoned. Even after that, the Academy continued to recognize his contributions with nominations and awards. They only banned him after receiving a great deal of backlash and animosity from the public after Bill Cosby's suspension.

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