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Aunt Viv blasts Will and Jada Smith over Oscar boycott

BLASTED: Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett-Smith

LOOKS LIKE Aunt Viv is still as sassy as ever!

Janet Hubert — best known for playing the original Aunt Vivian on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1990 to 1993 — took to Facebook yesterday (Jan 18) to voice her opinion on actress Jada Pinkett-Smith saying she will not watch or attend the Academy Awards because of a lack of diversity among this year's nominees.

Hubert believes the boycott is really because Pinkett-Smith's husband and Hubert's former co-star, Will Smith, was not nominated for his role in Concussion.

In the video addressed to “To the Smiths!” Hubert criticises Smith and his wife for their stance.

“First of all, Miss Thing,” begins Hubert, “does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?” She goes on, “The second thing, girlfriend, there’s a lot of s**t going on in the world that you all don’t seem to recognise.


GOING IN: Actress Janet Hubert addressed Will and Jada Smith in a Facebook video

"People are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are starving. People are trying to pay bills. And you’re talking about some [expletive] actors and Oscars. It just ain’t that deep.”

Hubert continues: “And here’s the other thing: For you to ask other actors, and other black actresses and actors, too, to jeopardise their career and their standing in a town that you know damn well you don’t do that. And here’s the other thing: They don’t care.

"They don’t care! And I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living, made their living and made millions and millions of dollars from the very people you’re talking about boycotting just because you didn’t get a nomination, just because you didn’t win.”

“That isn’t how life works, baby,” Hubert rants. “It’s very suspect to me.”

She then recalls an incident during Fresh Prince when Smith allegedly refused her request to negotiate together to get better deals.

“Well karma must be a b***h, cause now here you are. Here you are, you’ve had a few flops and you know there are those out there who really deserved a nod.”

Calling the also-snubbed Idris Elba an “incredible actor,” Hubert says to her former co-star, “You are not. Maybe you didn’t deserve a nomination. I didn’t think, frankly, you deserved a Golden Globes nomination with that accent, but you got one. And just because the world doesn’t go the way you want it to go, doesn’t mean you can go out and start asking people to stand up and sing ‘We Shall Overcome’ for you.”

“You ain’t Barack and Michelle Obama,” Hubert further says. “And you all need to get over yourselves. You have a huge production company that you only produce your friends, your family, and yourself. So you are a part of Hollywood, you are a part of the system that is unfair to other actors, so get real!”


BAD BLOOD: Will Smith and Janet Hubert worked together on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for three years

Towards the end, Hubert predicts that people will think she’s being “bitter,” but she insists, “It’s about being right. Some of us got mortgages to pay. We got bills to pay. We got bigger s**t to worry about than the Oscars.”

Hubert and Smith have actually had bad blood for years, and a falling out between them led her role on Fresh Princeto be recast with Daphne Reid in 1993.

Over the weekend, Jada blasted the Oscars for snubbing black actors at this year’s ceremony, saying “people of colour are always welcomed to give out awards”.

The actress took to Twitter days after The Academy announced its nominations, to voice her “deep disappointment” that the choices were overwhelmingly white.

Every actor and actress to land a nomination is white and notably snubbed stars including Idris Elba for Beasts of No Nation, Will Smith for Concussion, Michael B. Jordan for Creed, and the cast of Straight Outta Compton, among others.

“At the Oscars...people of colour are always welcomed to give out awards...even entertain, (pt. 1),” Pinkett-Smith wrote in the first of a three-post tirade.

“But we are rarely recognised for our artistic accomplishments. Should people of colour refrain from participating all together? (pt 2)

“People can only treat us in the way in which we allow. With much respect in the midst of deep disappointment. J (pt 3)”


BOYCOTT: Spike Lee

Award-winning director Spike Lee agrees with Pinkett-Smith, and yesterday he announced that he an his wife will not be attending the ceremony next month either.

Lee, who was awarded an honorary Oscar for his work in film in November, made the announcement Instagram account yesterday afternoon, which also happens to be Martin Luther King Day in the US.

“How is it possible, for the 2nd consecutive year, all 20 contenders under the actor category are white?,” (sic) he asked his 200,000 followers.

“40 white actors in 2 years and no flava at all. We can't act?! WTF!! It's no coincidence I'm writing this as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.” (sic)

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