Jean Smart urges TV networks not to televise award shows after California fires
‘Hacks’ actor asked networks to ‘seriously consider’ not broadcasting awards ceremonies as catastrophic wildfires rage through southern California
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Your support makes all the difference.Jean Smart has urged TV networks to refrain from televising forthcoming award shows and instead donate the revenue they would have made to the firefighters and victims of the catastrophic wildfires that continue to devastate southern California.
The Emmy-winning actor, 73, best known for her roles as Lana Gardner in Frasier and as Deborah Vance in Hacks, issued a plea online on Thursday (8 January) as the fast-moving wildfires in Los Angeles have destroyed thousands of homes and left at least 10 people dead and countless others injured.
Smart wrote: “ATTENTION! With ALL due respect, during Hollywood’s season of celebration, I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have garnered to the victims of the fires and the firefighters.”
While Smart did not name specific events, she may have been referring to the forthcoming star-studded events including the Oscars, the Critics Choice Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be broadcast by ABC, E! and Netflix respectively.
Follow live updates on the California fires here.
Awards ceremonies due to take place in Los Angeles have been pushed back as a result of the fires. The Critics Choice Awards have been postponed from 12 to 26 January, while the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has extended the deadline for Oscar nomination voting from 12 January to 14 January
Earlier this week, the Screen Actors Guild Awards cancelled its live nominations announcement and instead revealed nominations via a press release. Film premieres for Amazon MGM Studios’ Unstoppable, which stars Jennifer Lopez; Universal’s film Wolf Man starring Julia Garner; and an awards season event for the Golden Globe-winning film Emilia Pérez were all cancelled.
Smart’s plea comes after it was reported that the pink-coloured Altadena mansion seen on the comedy series Hacks has been destroyed in the fires. The location was introduced in the second season of the series as Deborah Vance’s side mansion in Los Angeles.
Before Hacks, the location had been featured in the 1921 Max Linder film Seven Years Bad Luck and, more recently, the Apple TV+ drama series Palm Royale.
An eyewitness told Deadline that the 1915 Spanish Colonial Revival mansion had burnt down in the Eaton fire, with only its facade left standing.
Thousands of properties have been destroyed in the wildfires, including the homes of the celebrities Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, Eugene Levy, and married actors Adam Brody and Leighton Meester.
Firefighters have been battling desperately to extinguish the blaze, as wind gusts of up to 60 mph are continuing to work against their firefighting efforts.
The Palisades Fire has been called one of the most destructive wildfires that the city has seen, at six per cent containment. The fire has scorched 19,978 acres, while the Altadena and Pasadena-based Eaton fire has burned 13,690 acres.
A new blaze, the Kenneth Fire, broke out north of the Palisades fire on Thursday, threatening homes near Calabasas and Hidden Hills.
Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said fire-destructed neighbourhoods in west LA “look like an atomic bomb was dropped on these areas”.
Reality TV star and hotel heiress Paris Hilton saw her $8.4m oceanfront Malibu home “burn to a crisp” during a live news broadcast. She shared her heartbreak as she visited the site where the property stood, telling fans she feels “like my heart has been shattered into a million pieces”.
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