STARS ARRIVE AT OSCARS LOOKING TO SNAP BACK AFTER THE SLAP
Los Angeles — A year after Will Smith strode on stage at the Dolby Theatre and slapped Chris Rock in the face, the Oscars reconvened Sunday for a ceremony that tried to move past one of the most infamous moments in Academy Awards history.
Stars streamed down the red carpet — or, this year, the champagne-colored carpet — at the Dolby in Los Angeles. After several days of rain in and around Los Angeles, the sun was out again for a ceremony the Academy Awards hoped would be less stormy than last year.
James Hong, co-star of best-picture favorite “Everything Everywhere All at Once” arrived with googly eyes on his tie, a reference to one of the film’s absurdist props.
“It shows if you wait long enough, you’ll make it,” the 94-year-old Hong told ABC on the carpet.
Some arrived already knowing their chances of winning were slim.
“We’re going to lose tonight against a liar called ‘Pinocchio,’” Antonio Banderas joked on the Oscars carpet. Banderas voices the main character in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which is nominated for best animated feature — a category widely expected to go to “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.”
Jimmy Kimmel, the show’s first solo emcee in five years, hosted for the third time. The late-night comedian had promised to make some jokes about The Slap; it would be “ridiculous” not to, he said.
Bill Kramer, chief executive of the film academy, has said that it was important, given what happened last year, to have “a host in place who can really pivot and manage those moments.”
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