*Chris Rock’s rep has shot down talk that the Oscar host has rewritten his opening speech for the Feb. 28 awards, as show producer Reginald Hudlin said over the weekend.
“Regarding Reggie Hudlin’s comments about Chris Rock’s Oscar hosting duties, neither he nor anyone else speaks for Chris,” his publicist, Leslie Sloane, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Chris has made no decisions about the content of the show. All will be revealed on February 28th. We will not comment further on this,” Sloane added.
As THR reports, Hudlin stated at Saturday’s NAACP Image Awards Nominee Luncheon that there would be changes to the monologue.
“Chris is hard at work. He and his writing staff locked themselves in a room,” Hudlin said to Entertainment Tonight. “As things got a little provocative and exciting, he said, ‘I’m throwing out the show I wrote and writing a new show.'”
Rock, who has joked that the Oscars were the “white BET Awards,” has been under increasing pressure to drop out as host due to the lack of black nominees in top categories for the second year in a row.
Hudlin told ET that viewers can expect Rock to tackle the troubling (for some) issue of all-white nominees
“You should expect [#OscarsSoWhite jokes],” Hudlin told ET. “And, yes, the Academy is ready for him to do that. They’re excited about him doing that. They know that’s what we need. They know that’s what the public wants, and we deliver what the people want.”
Marlon Wayans told People that “there’s no greater person to talk about this than Chris Rock.”
“Chris has a job to do,” the “Fifty Shades of Black” star said. “When you’re contracted and obligated to do something, you have a job to do. I don’t put that stress on that man. Rock’s going to go out and he’s going to address this. We’re all giving him fuel and stuff to talk about.”
The 88th Annual Academy Awards will air Feb. 28 at 8:30 ET/5:30 PT on ABC.
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