Jerry Lewis’ Humanitarian Gay Slur Controversy

Nikki Finke on the announcement that Jerry Lewis will be given the 2009 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at Deadline Hollywood:
"I also have learned that protests are coming into the Academy about its Board of Governors’ choice of Jerry Lewis to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The controversy is over his recent repeated and public anti-gay slurs. The Hollywood gay community, joined by much of the showbiz straight community, is already on edge because of Proposition 8 passed last month outlawing same-sex unions in California. So the vote by the AMPAS board selecting Lewis seems like ’salt poured into an open wound’, according to one of my sources. Already several prominent entertainment biz gays have questioned [...]

by Andre Soares | December 21, 2008   
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Oscar 2009: Jerry Lewis to Receive Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

Jerry Lewis, 82, will receive the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 2009 Academy Awards ceremony on February 22, 2009. The Jean Hersholt award — an Oscar statuette — is given to "an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry."
Jerry Lewis is well known for raising funds every year on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), where he has served as national chairman since 1952. As per the Academy’s press release, since the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon kicked off in 1966, the program has raised more than $2 billion for the cause.
Among former recipients of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award [...]

by Deborah Arthur | December 10, 2008   
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