Brett Ratner resigns as Oscar producer amid controversy!
Brett Ratner is out as producer of the 84th Academy Awards show.
It’s been a hell of a week for Ratner, who has gotten himself into quite some trouble with that big mouth of his! Amongst some of his offenses, he used a gay slur when asked about filmmaking. The director said that “rehearsing is for fags” in a Q&A session following a screening of his new film, “Tower Heist”. (He apologized once NY Magazine published his statement and a video of the exchange was posted.)
“As a first step, I called Tom Sherak this morning and resigned as a producer of the 84th Academy Awards telecast,” Ratner said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter). “Being asked to help put on the Oscar show was the proudest moment of my career. But as painful as this may be for me, it would be worse if my association with the show were to be a distraction from the Academy and the high ideals it represents.”
Ratner chose Eddie Murphy, the star of “Tower Heist,” to host the Oscars.
“He did the right thing for the Academy and for himself,” Sherak said in the Academy’s official response statement. “Words have meaning, and they have consequences. Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable. We all hope this will be an opportunity to raise awareness about the harm that is caused by reckless and insensitive remarks, regardless of the intent.”
Ratner also made headlines in a pair of lewd media appearances. He spoke about his sexual history with actress Olivia Munn on both G4 and Howard Stern’s radio programs; he said he “banged” Munn on a G4 talkshow, before admitting that he had never had sex with her in an explicit conversation with Stern. He made several other off-color sexual remarks during the interview with Stern, as well.
I listened to the whole Stern interview, and it was incredibly douchey. I’m not surprised at all that he got into trouble for the things he said. In other words…he probably deserves to lose the Oscars.
SIDENOTE: I made the horrible mistake of seeing ‘Tower Heist’ last night. Ok – here’s how my night went.
Went with a couple girlfriends to see ‘Rum Diary’. It was SOLD OUT, so we chose ‘Anonymous’ instead. That movie was probably the worst movie I’ve seen in ages, so 20 minutes into it – we walked out of the theater. We switched over to ‘Tower Heist’ which had already been on for 20 minutes. It was in my opinion, just as bad. It was just dumb. That’s the biggest thing – it was DUMB. It wasn’t a smart caper movie at all – it was just stupid. There were a couple moments when I chuckled, but overall – it was really – really BAD. (Trust me)
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