Oscars so white? Not if Russell Simmons has anything to say about it.
The entire night of the Oscars– Sunday, February 28th– Simmons will run and run and run his hour long “Black Oscars” aka “All Def Movie Awards” on Fusion TV. The cable channel is available on all systems across the country.
Simmons will tape the “All Def Movie Awards” on Wednesday night at Lure Nightclub in Hollywood, with Tony Rock– brother of Chris Rock, the host of this year’s Oscars– at the microphone.
The group has five Best Picture nominees, all of which can be voted on at http://bit.ly/AllDefMA. They are “Beasts of No Nation.” “Chi-Raq,” “Concussion,” “Creed,” “Dope,” and “Straight Outta Compton.”
The Fusion showings will begin at 7pm Eastern on Sunday and rerun all night while the Oscars are on ABC, which is owned by Disney. Ironically, Disney co-owns Fusion with Univision. So far they’ve got a bunch of all star black celebs and actors from Marlon Wayans and Vivica A. Fox to Sanaa Lathan, Regina Hall, Michael Ealy, Nick Cannon, Tyrese Gibson Bill Duke, Robert Townsend, and stars from all the nominated movies.
It’s amazing that neither Jet, Ebony, Essence or BET thought of this– great idea, can’t wait to see how it plays out.