PASADENA, United States (AFP) — Late night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel was amused by last year’s best film “flub” at the Oscars — but said any repeat should result in everyone at his network getting sacked.
The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, which organizes the prestigious annual prize-giving, was left red-faced in February last year when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced the wrong winner for best film after a mix-up with the envelopes.
“If it happens again, literally everyone that works at ABC should be fired. It happens one time and that’s, I think, understandable. But if it happens a second time, no one is competent enough to be running a television show or network,” said Kimmel, who returns as host in March.
“I don’t think it will happen again. I have to admit, it would tickle me deeply.”
The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” frontman was addressing journalists at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, California, when the subject turned to the 90th Academy Awards.
He said “99 percent” of the last Oscars show had gone well, adding that he didn’t think of it as the “Titanic-caliber disaster that most people do.”
“Ultimately it’s still just a bunch of celebrities handing each other trophies — let’s be honest,” he added.
Unlikely leader
Kimmel was asked if he would follow the lead of Seth Meyers, who hosted Sunday’s Golden Globes, in putting Hollywood’s various sexual harassment scandals front and center in his opening monologue.
“If you ask me the night before I’m sure I’ll have a much better answer for you,” said the 50-year-old New Yorker.
“Suffice it to say, I’m sure it will be part of the subject matter, unless there’s a nuclear weapon headed towards Sacramento that night.”
Kimmel came to international notice as the witty, articulate and at times passionate host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” which started in 2003.
Last year he emerged as an unlikely leader in the fight against the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act after giving a tearful speech on air about his son, Billy, who was born with a heart defect and nearly died.
Kimmel said he would not be using this year’s Oscars podium as a soapbox to talk about health care, however.
“It is very important to me, but I do think ultimately you have to remember why you are there, and it’s not about you and you’re there to entertain people who are there on the biggest night of their lives,” he said.
“If it gets too heavy then I think you are taking away from that.”
© Agence France-Presse
