(NEXSTAR) — The king of horror fiction sparked debate this week over the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony and whether or not Hollywood’s biggest night should go on as California’s still reeling from devastating wildfires.
In a post on Bluesky , the Twitter-alternative social media site, author Stephen King said he would not be voting as a member of the Academy this year. He further stated, “IMHO they should cancel them [the Oscars]. No glitz with Los Angeles on fire.”
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While some users agreed with King, many others, especially film industry people in Los Angeles, pointed out reasons the Oscars actually should go on.
Many pointed out that the film and TV industries in Los Angeles are still recovering from the 2023 double-whammy of the Writers Guild of America strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike , which resulted in multiple months of lost income and job opportunities for multiple thousands of regular working people.
At the time of the strikes, the entertainment industry was also still rebuilding after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which decimated theatrical release revenues and also greatly delayed (or abruptly ended) countless scores of productions, according to the Motion Picture Association’s 2020 THEME report …