While the 2014 Academy Awards spent several minutes honoring movie heroes, one real-life hero didn't get a chance to join them: 5-year-old "Batkid" Miles Scott.
Scott, who is in remission from leukemia, made headlines last year when the city of San Francisco shut down to honor him and his "Batkid" costume.
He been promised a spot in the Oscars show, only to be cut last-minute. Fortunately, he still got to meet a movie superhero in Spider-Man Andrew Garfield.
So what went wrong? A spokesperson blamed scheduling conflicts: "Basically, because of the fluid nature of live TV production, ultimately the segment didn't work."
Garfield, who was listed as one of the Oscars' presenters, rehearsed with Scott the Saturday before the Academy Awards; he also did not appear Sunday.
This prompted speculation that it was the actor who nixed the segment. Not the case. A rep from the Academy issued a statement defending Garfied:
"Andrew Garfield understood that his segment had to be omitted, and he drove to Disneyland on Monday to spend time with 5-year-old Miles Scott (Batkid) and his family."
"In full collaboration with the Academy and the show writer, Andrew prepared a segment for the Oscars to honor Miles Scott as the true hero that he is."
"At (sic) some point overnight on Saturday/ Sunday morning, it was decided by those running the show that the segment didn't work in the ceremony."
"They decided to pull it. Andrew and Miles were equally upset."
"The producers arranged for Miles and his family to visit Disneyland on Monday and Andrew drove down to visit them and to bring Miles a personal gift."
"Andrew did the right thing and anyone saying otherwise is flat out lying," the statement said, reiterating that The Amazing Spider-Man star didn't bail.
Scott's mother Natalie lamented the last-minute scratch:
"I don't know if they ran out of time, or if there was something they didn't like ... it got pulled so quickly that we didn't have a lot of insight into what was going on."
In any case, the heroic Miles Scott finished his cancer treatments last summer, then got a special treat from the Make-A-Wish foundation in November.
Dressed as a small Batman, he walked around San Francisco fighting crime in a story that earned national media attention and even a shout-out from the President.
In typical fashion, Natalie Scott said her son is taking the Oscar snub very well. Heroically, even. "We told him that it didn't work out, but we ended up having fun anyway."
{ 0 komentar... read them below or add one }
Posting Komentar