Hollywood star’s bizarre Oscar gesture to Zelensky ridiculed
Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn loaned Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky one of his Academy awards in a scene which brought much mirth, merriment, and ridicule.
The Hollywood star visited the Ukraine president yesterday and in a show of ostentation handed over one of his precious Oscars and said…
“It is just a symbolic, silly thing but if I know this is here with you then I’ll feel better and stronger for the fight.
“When you win, bring it back to Malibu. Because I’ll feel much better knowing there’s a piece of me here.”
Zelensky in return presented Penn with the country’s Order of Merit of the III degree, thanking him for his “significant contribution” to the war effort.
“When you win, bring it back to Malibu”
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 9, 2022
Hollywood actor Sean Penn gives his Oscar to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyhttps://t.co/Aq2s92fhHt pic.twitter.com/53aar8yr4o
The actor’s name was also marked on a stone on Ukraine’s Walk of the Brave, which recognises “brave people who have stood with Ukraine from the very beginning” and features many world leaders who have helped since the outbreak of the war.
Penn said there were three places in the world where “all the pride of my life would be – the place where my daughter was born, the place where my son was born, and this.”
Penn was filming a documentary about the Ukraine-Russian conflict in March but was forced to leave. It was the 62 year old actor’s third visit to the country.
The Hollywood star has twice been named best actor at the Oscars for Mystic River in 2004 and Milk in 2009.
The New York Post made fun of Penn’s gesture as “ludicrous” adding “Hollywood just can’t help itself.”
The publication highlighted several of Penn’s highly publicized gaffs. It said…
“He cavorts around the world acting as a self-appointed ambassador. In 2002 and 2003, Penn reported on the Iraq War for the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s diddled in the United States’ relationships with Cuba, and Venezuela. In 2015, he conducted an unauthorized interview with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, a guy whose hobbies include dismembering his enemies, for Rolling Stone.”
It is hard to disagree with the platform, which concluded…
“Penn lives his life like he’s in a movie with a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critical consensus: “Self-absorbed and unrealistically absurd.”
