Former NBA star Kobe Bryant is now an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, in year where MeToo and Time’s Up are dominating the topic of conversation surrounding the ceremony.
Bryant scored an Oscar for Best Animated Short for Dear Basketball, alongside director Glen Keane, an animated adaptation of his retirement announcement letter posted on The Player’s Tribune, and a film that clocks in at a healthy 6 minutes.
Bryant’s win immediately attracted scorn, given the former Los Angeles Laker was embroiled in a sexual assault case in 2003, after he was arrested and accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel employee in Colorado.
Twitter was quick to point out that, in a year where Hollywood is appearing to take a stand on the awful past behaviour of men, awarding one of its highest honours to Bryant is, at best, profoundly hypocritical.
Hollywood: TIME’S UP
Also Hollywood: Congratulations to Oscar winner Kobe Bryant!!!— ✨ Caroline D Framke ✨ (@carolineframke) March 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/madeleine_rae/status/970489593832329217
https://twitter.com/ChrisWarcraft/status/970489256824119296
There was quite a bit of evidence in the rape case against Academy Award winner Kobe Bryant: https://t.co/1rFX8l5s05 #Oscars pic.twitter.com/rxEOVIp23Z
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) March 5, 2018
Kobe Bryant won an Oscar? Casey Affleck must be sitting at home wondering why he didn’t come after all. #oscars
— 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘 𝙴𝚡𝚎𝚌 PARODY (@studioexec1) March 5, 2018
This just in: Admitted non-consensual sex haver Kobe Bryant wins an #Oscar. Up next: Has the #metoo movement gone too far?
— Rebecca Cohen (@GynoStar) March 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/andreagrimes/status/970488715955990528
https://twitter.com/grantpa/status/970489098946269184
https://twitter.com/_Makada_/status/970491527091965952
https://twitter.com/redroomrantings/status/970488958919630848
https://twitter.com/ZackBornstein/status/970488749615300608
It’s worth noting that the case against Bryant dissolved just prior to going to trial, with his accuser filing a civil suit that was settled out of court; the criminal charge was dropped as part of the undisclosed settlement.
At the time, Kobe issued a statement on the matter which included an admission that the sex in question was non-consensual.
Kobe Bryant’s apology to the woman who accused him of rape. pic.twitter.com/ezsctMGm4N
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) March 5, 2018
That’s show business, folks.
