Calls for Oscar boycott grow over lack of non-white nominees

As calls for a boycott of this year's Academy Awards over the all-white list of acting nominees intensifies, the academy's president issued a statement late Monday promising a more intense drive to diversify the largely white, male voting body.

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs's statement came after director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith each announced that they would not be attending the Feb. 28 ceremony, Fox News reported.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Lee said he "cannot support" the "lily white" Oscars. Noting that he was writing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lee -- who in November was given an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards -- said he was fed up: "Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all," he wrote. "We can't act?!"

Lee made a point of writing in his post that the Academy Awards is only part of the problem in an industry with deep-rooted diversity issues. In his Governors Awards speech, Lee said "It's easier to be the president of the United States as a black person than be the head of a studio."

"The Academy Awards is not where the `real' battle is," wrote Lee on Monday. "It's in the executive office of the Hollywood studios and TV and cable networks. This is where the gate keepers decide what gets made and what gets jettisoned to `turnaround' or scrap heap. This is what's important. The gate keepers. Those with `the green light' vote."

In a video message on Facebook, Pinkett Smith, whose husband Will Smith wasn't nominated for his performance in the NFL head trauma drama "Concussion," said it was time for people of color to disregard the Academy Awards.

"Begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power," she said. "And we are a dignified people and we are powerful."

She added: "Let's let the academy do them, with all grace and love. And let's do us differently." The video had amassed 4.5 million by mid-Monday afternoon.

Last year's all-white acting nominees also drew calls for a boycott, though not from such prominent individuals as Lee and Pinkett Smith. Whether it had any impact or not, the audience for the broadcast, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, was down 16 percent from the year prior, a six-year low.

Isaacs has made a point of presenting a more inclusive show this year. The Feb. 28 broadcast will be hosted by Chris Rock and produced by "Django Unchained" producer Reginald Hudlin and David Hill.