During the weekend, West Side Story star Rachel Zegler revealed she has not been invited to the 94th Annual Academy Awards, despite the film being nominated for Best Picture. It’s a pretty major rejection from the Academy, which Zegler tried unsuccessfully to remedy before letting her fans know on Instagram why she won’t be at the Oscars. Given the amount of attention Zegler’s situation received, you’d assume the Academy would make it right. Not so much. Instead, it has announced a new list of recently added presenters, which notably does not include Zegler.
Through The Hollywood Reporter†
HER, who won the Oscar for Best Original Song for Judas and the Black Messiah last year, will join previous nominees Bill Murray and Elliot Page as presenters. Stephanie Beatriz, Jennifer Garner, DJ Khaled, Tiffany Haddish, Tony Hawk, Kelly Slater and Shaun White are among the all-star lineup added to the show. It was previously announced that Academy Award winners Ruth E. Carter, Kevin Costner, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Kaluuya, Rami Malek, Lupita Nyong’o and Yuh-Jung Youn will also return to the Oscar stage to present awards.
Of course, this news didn’t come across well on social media, where people are understandably frustrated and confused as to why the star of a film nominated for Best Picture still hasn’t been invited to the Oscars. It also doesn’t help the situation that random celebrities like snowboarder Shaun White, skateboarder Tony Hawk and DJ Khaled scored invites despite not even being actors, unless you count Tony Hawk’s appearance as “Skateboarder” in the classic 1984 movie. Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol†
You can see some of the responses below. It is now a whole.
Hollywood Innovator Rachel Zegler Won’t Get an Oscar Invitation… What the Hell Is Going On?
— Marie Bardi (@mariebardi) March 20, 2022
For those trying to understand why this is so concerning:
previous Best Picture Oscar nominees La La Land, Les Misérables, Chicago had lead actors who were all invited to the #Oscars
For Rachel Zegler, a rising Hollywood actress, it is a shame to be rejected. #AcademyAwards https://t.co/UWGlNk38Hy
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) March 20, 2022
Oscar producers: “Sorry Rachel Zegler, we’d love for you to award an award, but we had to get that X-Games demographic tuned this year…” 🙄 https://t.co/vF6NmjkLXX
— OnStage Blog 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 (@OnstageBlog) March 21, 2022
west side story is nominated for 7 oscars and rachel Zegler was not invited… this is my villian origin story
— bobby burnham (@ifckslts) March 20, 2022
tbh not inviting Rachel Zegler to the oscars is a miss for the broadcast because she probably would have worn something amazing and been extremely emotional in every cutaway response shot
— rachel syme (@rachsyme) March 21, 2022
why do dj khaled and shaun white present at the oscars, but Rachel Zegler doesn’t even get an invite? What a joke
— Brice Anthony Heller (@bah618) March 21, 2022
Don’t have the opportunity to invite Rachel Zegler, a lead role in a film that has been nominated for multiple Oscars, including best picture, but Shaun White and DJ Khaled are ready to go.
Keep trying to get people who will never watch while ignoring why the show exists in the first place. A+ https://t.co/7aBwfXWGQ5
— Peter Tedone (@PTFilm) March 21, 2022
Inviting Ansel Elgort to the Oscars and not inviting Rachel Zegler is like inviting your girlfriend’s parents to dinner, but not your girlfriend.
— Luis 🎬🌌 (@RealRadReviews) March 21, 2022
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)