Friday, May 22, 2026

Iranian Actress Taraneh Alidoosti Says She’s Boycotting Oscars Instead of Coming Here and Protesting

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Taraneh Alidoosti made a big splash this morning. The Iranian star of “The Salesman,” nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, decided to boycott the Oscars because of Donald Trump’s immigration ban.

It’s a mistake. First of all, she should have waited until she was banned, and turned the whole business into a real controversy.

Second, if she was able to come, she would have had more of an impact if she’d come to the Oscars and spoken on behalf of the Iranian people. Alidoosti would have had the ear of the international media.

Now she’ll stay in Iran, and her absence will mean very little. Taraneh, you missed a golden opportunity. The Academy Awards are at least a forum for people from all the world. They may be one of the last forums as we get further into the Trump mess.

It is hoped that the filmmaker Asghar Farhadi will still be able to come to the US for the show. He won the Oscar in 2012 for “A Separation.”

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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