Jimmy Kimmel may not have been steering the ship at this year’s Academy Awards, but the late-night host still managed to steal a few laughs when he stepped onstage to present the documentary prizes and made an obvious comment on US President Donald Trump.
When he went on stage to present the award for documentaries, he said, “We hear a lot about courage at shows like this but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage. As you know there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.”
He also said, “Okay, I'm just gonna go for it. Not hosting the Oscars. Why, gentlemen?”
The remarks referred to CBS’s recent decision to not allow “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” to feature Texas State Representative James Talarico as a guest, due to threats from the FCC. CBS earlier iced a “60 Minutes” segment that had been promoted.
Kimmel also had experience with free speech issues, after he was abruptly yanked off the air last fall following criticism from FCC chairman Brendan Carr, an act by Disney that became a rallying call for free speech proponents.
“Fortunately for all of us there’s an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action, and there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes,” he added, in a subtle dig at Amazon MGM’s “Melania.”
Later, while giving out outstanding documentary film, Kimmel again referred to the film and joked, “Oh, man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this.”
In the awards, “All the Empty Rooms”, directed by Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones, won for documentary short, and “Mr Nobody Against Putin” won for David Borenstein, Helle Faber, Alžbeta Karásková, Radovan Síbrt and Lucie Kon.
