Halle Berry stepped into disgraced Will Smith’s shoes to present the Oscars for Best Actor and Actress at the 2023 ceremony on Sunday – one year after the star was banned for 10 years for slapping Chris Rock.
Oscar winner Berry, 56, joined 2022 Best Actress winner Jessica Chastain, 45, as the pair presented Best Actor to Brendan Fraser for The Whale and Best Actress to Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Smith was forced to give up the honor of presenting the best actor gong to this year’s winner due to his slap of Rock.
He took his family to see life coach guru Jay Shetty in Los Angeles over Oscars weekend.
The actor stepped out with wife Jada Pinkett Smith and posed with Shetty, Gammy Norris and Lauren London at the Love Rules show,
Banned: Halle Berry stepped into disgraced Will Smith’s shoes to present the Oscars for Best Actor and Actress at the 2023 ceremony on Sunday – one year after the star was banned for 10 years for slapping Chris Rock
Slap: Smith was forced to give up the honor of presenting the best actor gong to this year’s winner due to his slap of Rock onstage in 2022
A synopsis of the show reads: ‘Jay will take the audience on a journey of finding, keeping, and even letting go of love. Including live meditations, experiments, and demonstrations, this will be an unforgettable and transformational evening.;
The slap occurred last year after Rock made a joke about Pinkett-Smith’s bald head, caused by alopecia.
Rock had joked that Pinkett-Smith was rocking a ‘G.I. Jane’ look which caused her husband to storm the stage and slap him, followed by him repeating: ‘Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth!’
Smith is reportedly ‘still remorseful’ over slapping Rock at the 2022 Oscars and has tried ‘unsuccessfully’ to make amends with the comedian, a source told People this week.
Rock recently tore into Will and Jada’s relationship and addressed the slap on new Netflix show, Selective Outrage.
Everything Everywhere All At Once nearly won everything, everywhere as the film led the pack with seven wins at The Oscars 2023 as it earned top honor Best Picture with individual recognitions for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis while Brendan Fraser completed his incredible career comeback with a Best Actor win.
The American absurdist action comedy-drama film was the biggest winner of the night as it earned Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Editing, and Best Original screenplay.
At the end of the night Daniel Kwan was joined by his co-director Daniel Scheinert – AKA The Daniels – as they thanked the entire cast and crew: ‘We’ve said enough tonight. Thank you so much to everyone here. You have all inspired me. One of the things that I realized growing up is that one of the best things we can do for each other is shelter each other from the chaos of this crazy world.
Pals: Oscar winner Berry, 56, joined 2022 Best Actress winner Jessica Chastain, 45, as the pair presented Best Actor to Brendan Fraser for The Whale and Best Actress to Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All At Once
You did it! Brendan Fraser was emotional as he picked up his award
Milestone: Michelle looked over the moon as she scooped her award
‘Thank you to the storytellers here who did that for me. The world is changing rapidly and I fear our stories aren’t keeping at pace and I sometimes it’s a little scary knowing that movies move at the rate of years and the world on the internet is moving at the rate of miliseconds, but I have great faith in our stories.
‘These stories have changed my life and they have done that for generations. Have a great night, guys, thank Thank you, everyone, have a great night. Thank you for watching!’
The film beat out quite the field incluiding: All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, TÁR, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking.
Before that Brendan Fraser completed his incredible career comeback as he took home top honor Best Actor for The Whale.
The 54-year-old actor had tears running down his eyes as he accepted his well earned award as his speech began: ‘Thank you, thank you. So this is what the multiverse looks like. Oh. My goodness. I thank the academy for this honor and for our studio a-24 for making such a bold film. And — I’m grateful to Darren for throwing me a creative lifetime and hauling me aboard the good ship The Whale.
Epic: Ke Huy Quan completed his incredible career comeback while Jamie Lee Curtis got emotional while talking about her legendary actor parents as they earned Best Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively, for Everything Everywhere All At Once
Dynamic duo: Quan portrays Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once, who is the husband of Michelle Yeoh’s (pictured right) leading character Evelyn Quan Wang whose benevolence comes off as naïveté
‘It was written by Samuel D. Hunter who is our lighthouse. Gentlemen, you laid your whale-sized hearts bare so that we could see into your souls like no one else could do and it is my honor to be named alongside you in this category. I want to tell you that only whales can swim at the depth of the talent of Hong Chau, and I started in this business 30 years ago, and things — they didn’t come easily to me, but there was a facility that I didn’t — I doesn’t appreciate at the time until it stopped.
‘And I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement, because it couldn’t be done without my cast, it’s been like I’ve been in a diving expedition at the bottom of the ocean and the air on the line to the surface is on a launch being watched over by some people in my life, like my sons, holden and Leland and griffin. I love you. My manager Joann, Jennifer plant, and my best first mate, Jeanne. Thank you, again, each one and all. I’m so grateful to you. Good night.’
Just before that the Top Gun franchise has finally earned an Oscar.
The Tom Cruise led sequel Top Gun: Maverick won the Academy Award for Best Sound on Sunday during a ceremony which the 60-year-old leading man skipped.
The action flick’s sound team of Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, and Mark Taylor were recognized as Nelson accepted the honor saying: ‘Thank you, Academy. And thank you to everyone who saw and heard this film. Together, in theaters.
‘Thank you to our incredibly collaborative filmmakers, our director and our producers. Thank you to the sound artists who share this award with us at Skywalker sound and soundbyte studios in London. And to our families. We did it!’
The blockbuster film beat out stiff competition including: Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel, and Stefan Korte – All Quiet on the Western Front, Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, and Michael Hedges – Avatar: The Way of Water, Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray, and Andy Nelson – The Batman, and David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson, and Michael Keller – Elvis.
Sighting: Will took his family to see life coach guru Jay Shetty in Los Angeles over Oscars weekend
The film is centered around Cruise’s character Capt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell thirty years after the original film as he is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN’s elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.
Ke Huy Quan completed his incredible career comeback while Jamie Lee Curtis got emotional while talking about her legendary actor parents as they earned Best Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively, for Everything Everywhere All At Once at The Oscars on Sunday.
The 51-year-old Hollywood veteran Quan – who took a decades long hiatus from acting – got emotional as he hit the podium to accept the highest honor in his career.
He concluded the speech by tearfully telling all the struggling actors to not give up on their dreams as he said: ‘Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine.
‘To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive. Thank you, thank you so much for welcoming me back. I love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!’
Quan beat out an impressive field including: Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin, Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway, Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans, and Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin.
Quan portrays Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once, who is the husband of Michelle Yeoh’s leading character Evelyn Quan Wang whose benevolence comes off as naïveté.
The talented actor made his name starring in his first role as Short Round in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom back in 1984.
He took a 20 year break from acting as ‘the phone didn’t ring’ and later attended film school at the University of Southern California and found success as an assistant director and stunt coordinator, although he always wished that he could begin acting again.
Meanwhile Curtis, 64, got very emotional as she recognized her acting legend parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh who were both nominated for Academy Awards.
She extended her arms with her shiny new trophy in her left hand as she proudly declared: ‘And my mother and my father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories — I just won an Oscar.
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