Things We Saw Today: Sean Penn Is at It Again

Sean Penn is back, this time with more unsolicited opinions! The Academy Award-winning actor took time off from criticizing the Me Too movement and “feminized men” to demand that Ukrainian president President Volodymyr Zelenskyy be invited to make an appearance at the Academy Awards. Penn said that viewers and attendees should boycott the event if Zelenskyy isn’t invited, adding that he would smelt his own Oscar in public if his demands weren’t met.

“If it turns out to be what is happening, I would encourage everyone involved, though it may be their moment, and I understand that, to celebrate their films, it is so much more importantly their moment to shine, and to protest and to boycott that Academy Awards,” Penn said. “I myself, if it comes back to it, when I return, I will smelt mine in public. I pray that’s not what happens. I pray there have not been arrogant people who consider themselves representatives of the greater good who have decided not to check in with leadership in Ukraine. So I’m going to hope that’s not what happened, and I hope everyone walks out if it is.”

I don’t know Sean, maybe Zelenskyy is a little bit busy defending his entire country from a Russian invasion to share some talking points with the Hollywood elite. It’s all the more absurd given that, according to recent ratings, the Oscars doesn’t have the reach it once did. Penn is currently filming a documentary for Vice about the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, and met with Zelenskyy himself.

Obviously, Zelenskyy and Ukraine should be supported. But how is his appearance on an awards show going to change anything? It comes off as insulting and pandering to an extraordinary man who frankly has bigger things to worry about. And Penn, despite his best efforts, comes off as self-absorbed and disconnected. Sean, nobody cares if you melt your Oscar. You could shoot it out of a cannon for all we care. Please gain some perspective on this situation.

(via Deadline, image: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

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Happy Sunday, Mary Suevians! Are you watching the Oscars tonight?

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