The Academy Awards show has set aside a moment to feature the Time’s Up campaign against workplace sexual misconduct during Sunday’s Oscars ceremony.
Organisers of the campaign said they have worked with the producers of Sunday’s ceremony to bring attention to their cause, Hollywood trade publications Variety and The Hollywood Reporter said on Friday.
“There’s a moment that’s been carved out,” Variety quoted film director Ava DuVernay as saying.
The organisers did not give details, and producers of the Oscars show did not respond to a request for comment.
The sexual misconduct scandal has dominated Hollywood’s awards season and forced dozens of actors, filmmakers and agents to step down, be fired or dropped from creative projects.
The Oscars ceremony on Sunday will give the Time’s Up campaign its biggest public moment, reaching an audience of A-list celebrities and millions watching on television worldwide.
Time’s Up, launched on January 1, is a legal defense fund which aims to support people reporting sexual harassment in the entertainment industry and beyond.
It has the support of some of Hollywood’s biggest female stars, including Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman, DuVernay and“Grey’s Anatomy” producer Shonda Rhimes.
Celebrities wore black en masse at the Golden Globe awards ceremony in January to signal support for victims of sexual harassment, and at music’s Grammy Awards in January many artists held or pinned white roses to their clothes.
Time’s Up on Friday also announced a partnership with the US oral history project StoryCorps to document experiences by women about discrimination and abuse in the workplace.
Actresses Jane Fonda, Ashley Judd and Rashida Jones are among a first group of women, including domestic workers and human rights activists, to record their stories, organizers said in a statement.
Women around the world will be invited to share their experiences via a #TIMESUPxStoryCorps campaign across social media platforms, and a free StoryCorps app.(Reuters)
