During tonight's opening Oscars 2018 ceremony, host Jimmy Kimmel paid homage to the Me Too and Time's Up movements.
According to Hollywood Reporter, Kimmel first began his speech by explaining the "Envelopegate" slip-up: "I do want to mention: This year, when you hear your name called, don't get up right away." During last year's show, Warren Beatty mistakenly announced La La Land as best picture when the award was awarded to Moonlight.
He then began discussing the Me Too and Time's Up movements. Kimmel explained that if Hollywood protected women against sexual assault and harassment, they would only face such predatory behavior everywhere else. (Cue laugh cry.) Additionally, Kimmel mentioned the gender disparity in film directors as well as the gender pay gap.
While he stressed that award winners should raise awareness for social movements, such as demonstrations during their acceptance speeches, he said that the recipient with the shortest speech would win a brand new jet ski. So far, no speech notably short, probably because the people on stage are too rich to care about winning a free jet ski.
That wasn't the only goodie that Kimmel offered the audience. He also provided lunchboxes full of snacks to everyone in attendance, and a donation to the Los Angeles Food Bank to accompany each one.
We don’t like it when people are hungry – so we provided lunchboxes with snacks for everyone at the #Oscars and included a donation to the @LAFoodBank for each one. https://t.co/Epp3SmGQAi #WeFeedLA @ThisBar #ThisBarSavesLives @WolfgangPuck @TheAcademy pic.twitter.com/x5LG0KbTk4
Over on the red carpet outside of the theater, Ryan Seacrest's red carpet was uneventful, especially following Me Too founder Tarana Burke's comments suggesting he should've just stayed home.
Who will walk away tonight with an award? An award and a jet ski? Stay tuned tonight and check out our winner predictions in the meantime.
