“The reason why I passed is because I’ve addressed this several times.” “I chose to pass on the apology,” Hart said. In a video on Instagram, Hart said the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gave him an ultimatum: apologize or “we’re going to have to move on and find another host.” “Whereas had he apologized, he could have actually moved on.Earlier Thursday evening, the comedian had refused to apologize for tweets that resurfaced after he was announced as Oscars host on Tuesday. “He will almost certainly have to talk about it again,” Levick said. But one thing that is not in doubt, experts say, is the likelihood that Hart will face further questions in the future. Whether or not the incident will have any long-lasting impact on Hart’s career remains to be seen. “Not looking at at an invitee’s Twitter feeds? We’re talking about a day’s worth of work, if that.”Īlso Read: GLAAD: Kevin Hart 'Shouldn't Have Stepped Down He Should Have Stepped Up' as Oscars Host “Could this have been handled any worse? Hard to imagine,” he said. Levick also put blame on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for picking a host with a documented anti-LGBT past. “He had three-quarters of a decade to show us how he’s evolved.”
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“Apologies aren’t just about what you say it’s about what you do,” Levick added. Hart made things worse, crisis experts say, by insisting that he had “evolved” past his years-old comments.
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It appears to be personal.”Īlso Read: Kevin Hart Steps Down as Oscars Host, Apologizes for Homophobic Tweets something that sounds personal,” Richard Levick, chairman of crisis management firm Levick, told TheWrap. “This doesn’t appear to be a joke. “What you want to do is distinguish a comedian’s body of work vs. The tweet had been addressed by Hart before in a 2015 Rolling Stone interview, though critics note it lacked an actual apology. On Wednesday, reporters began noticing that Hart had deleted dozens of old homophobic missives, including one from 2011 in which he wrote: “Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay.” “If he can’t even get dressed and look his best how can his message be taken seriously?” “The message he’s basically sending is, ‘It’s not a big deal,'” Lou Shapiro, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in crisis management, told TheWrap. “Kevin Hart is firing back at critics who think he’s unfit to host the Oscars due to old tweets that were extremely homophobic,” the site wrote, “and by firing back, we mean he’s laying in bed and refusing to apologize.”Īlso Read: Kevin Hart Responds to Uproar Over Anti-Gay Tweets: 'Stop Looking for Reasons to Be Negative' Hart’s initial response - addressing the uproar in a grainy black and white Instagram video while still in bed - was so jarring even TMZ, a site known for salacious Hollywood gossip, seemed appalled. The apology came only after the comedian twice insisted he would not apologize for the tweets because he had already “moved on.”
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“I always advise, apologize once and well.”Īfter dozens of Hart’s old homophobic tweets surfaced on Thursday, he announced he would no longer host the 2019 Academy Awards - one of his lifelong dreams. “One good sincere apology upfront probably would have made this go away,” Bragman said. Howard Bragman, a longtime Hollywood crisis manager and chairman and founder of La Brea Media told TheWrap Hart’s apology was a case of “too little, too late.”Īlso Read: Kevin Hart Has Deleted Old Anti-Gay Tweets Since Landing Oscar Hosting Gig
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“His refusal to do the right thing ended up costing him a lot more than it needed to,” Evan Nierman, founder of crisis PR firm Red Banyan, told TheWrap. Ask three crisis managers what they think of any given scandal, and you’re likely to get five different opinions.īut when it comes to Kevin Hart’s handling of his resurfaced anti-gay tweets, top Hollywood publicists are in a rare agreement: the comedian couldn’t have botched his apology more if he wanted to.