Toxic Masculinity & Event Management

Intoxicated & difficult-to-manage guests have been around for 300 years; bullies even longer. A flight attendant can have a violent person in zip-ties in 30 seconds. A rapid response plan is event management 101. This is first year stuff.

Great producers manage actual tornados and work in active war zones. A fussy celebrity is an easy day at work. My team plans for when things might go wrong.

The guy who portrayed Muhammad Ali landed a full body blow to a comic who is physically much smaller. The 6'3" guy didn't like a joke so he rushed the stage. I doubt Will would have taken a swing at The Rock or Joe Rogan. Will was abusing his physical abilities over another which makes it much worse. He should have been immediately removed from the venue. Will was allowed to stay because the producers were ill prepared (afraid)...period. The Academy did serious damage to their long term reputation.

Who is to blame? (other than Will) #1 Will Packer was the executive producer. He had the power to keep the cameras off of Will and adjust the schedule to award best actor at the end of the show. This would have provided the time to pivot. A commercial break can take as long as it needs to take. While off-camera; the producers should have asked Will to leave. Someone else could have accepted the award on his behalf. This movie was about the dad of Venus and Serena Williams. They were sitting in the front row. They could have spoken instead of the temperamental actor. This would have been much more powerful Hollywood storytelling.

#2 John Bailey, 79, is the president of the Academy. He should have immediately removed Will. What would have happened if an usher attacked John Bailey; or if Will Smith attacked John Bailey? At best that person would have been removed. The usher would likely still be in jail. The Academy choose to celebrate this violent act of Toxic Masculinity?because it's "just show business" and it's great for ratings. If you don't think many of the producers celebrated this then you've never been in the control room during a live national TV broadcast when something shocking happens.

The above plan of action would have still celebrated an amazing acting performance. It would have also shown the world that civilized people do not condone violence. I have been a defender of Hollywood up until now. The Academy and the show producers dropped the ball this time. I hope they redeem themselves.

PS - If you hire my team to produce your show, and your CEO punches someone back stage, you can be sure that we will politely ask them to leave. I expect that 99 times out of 100 they will agree we did the right thing when reflecting on it days later.

We have been producing shows from The Olympics to The Nobel Prize for 20 years. Please reach out. We love to work with new like minded people.