O’Brien, Kimmel jab at Trump at Oscars

O’Brien, Kimmel jab at Trump at Oscars LOS ANGELES — Host Conan O’Brien and presenter Jimmy Kimmel mocked Donald Trump from the stage. On the red carpet, stars could be seen wearing pins that said “ICE OUT.” And when Javier Bardem presented the award for Best International Feature Film, the actor said, “No to war. And free Palestine.” For the second time this century, the Academy Awards unfolded Sunday during the early stages of a U.S. war in the Middle East. And while Trump’s name went unmentioned throughout, the subtext was a collective snub of the president from an industry he has long battled. And Hollywood was not above going low. O’Brien, saying he was standing on the stage of “has-a-small-penis theater,” added, “Let’s see him put his name in front of that,” a nod to the president affixing his name to the Kennedy Center late last year. He joked that Kid Rock was putting on an alternate Oscars at the “Dave & Buster’s down the street,” a reference to the counterprogrammed Super Bowl halftime show put on by Turning Point USA last month. Kimmel, a frequent Trump irritant, lauded nominated documentary shorts for “telling the truth,” before landing a dig about films in which “you walk around the White House trying on shoes,” a reference to “Melania,” the documentary about the first lady. Moments later, while giving out the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, he said, “Oh man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this.” The last time the Oscars took place during the early stages of a U.S. war was in 2003, when President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq just days before the ceremony. In response, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group that puts on the show, toned down the festivities: The traditional red-carpet spectacle was largely scrapped, and some presenters backed out of the event, among them Will Smith, Jim Carrey and Cate Blanchett. This year, with the exception of stepped-up security, there was never any real expectation that the ceremony would be significantly altered because of the war in Iran. But the conflict — and the polarizing president — hung over the festivities. Paul Thomas Anderson, whose film “One Battle After Another” — about a former revolutionary’s struggle against a far-right military figure — took home Best Picture, lamented the current state of global affairs as a “housekeeping mess” that the next generation is now burdened with cleaning up. O’Brien said early on that these are “very chaotic and frightening times.” But, he said, “It’s at moments like these that I believe that the Oscars are particularly resonant.” “We pay tribute tonight, not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience, and that rarest of qualities today — optimism,” said O’Brien, hosting the show for the second year in a row. “So, let us please celebrate the days ahead — not because we think all is well, but because we work and hope for better.” The somber moment was just that — a moment. Soon enough, O’Brien was lacing the show with his brand of off-kilter comedy and a parade of A-listers were handing out awards. During the telecast, the president, in a Truth Social post accusing Iran of using AI to spread disinformation , lit into the news media and “Late Night Morons, who get gigantic Salaries for horrible Ratings, and never get, as I used to say in The Apprentice, ‘FIRED.’” He did not mention the Oscars. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In all, the production made for a night suffused with politics — perhaps more than some prognosticators had expected, especially after last year’s show, which went light on overtly political messages. Whether America approved of the effort will come into focus Monday, when the initial ratings are released. The Oscars’ audience has been shrinking for years. In 2000, the show drew about 46 million viewers in the United States. A year ago, the telecast reached roughly 20 million — up slightly from 2024. Some conservative politicians and pundits have said that Hollywood’s liberal politics — which are routinely espoused during the telecast — are the reason for the Oscars’ decline in viewership. Others have pointed to different issues: the rise of social media, which has made it easy to view the show’s buzzy moments and avoid a three-hour-plus slog in front of the TV, and the lack of many popular films among nominees. The film academy took a major step to address the latter issue in 2009, when it expanded the Best Picture category from five nominees to include as many as 10 films. This year, popcorn flick “F1,” a box office success starring Brad Pitt, was among the films nominated in the category. The movie hadn’t been expected to win Best Picture — but it didn’t leave empty-handed, taking home the award for Best Sound.