One of Hollywood’s longest standing couples is Jada Pinkett Smith and hubby Will, otherwise known as the freshest prince that ever lived. They’re regular attendees during awards season in Hollywood, gracing the Golden Globes last week that was dominated by Leo DiCaprio and Ricky Gervais.

One thing Jada Pinkett Smith won’t be doing is attending or watching the 2016 Oscars, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite seeing a number of high profile celebs mobilise to put some difficult questions to those who dish out Academy Awards nominations.

You can see her reasoning behind that decision in the video up top, as well as the tweets she sent out:

Joining her in giving the Oscars a miss will be director Spike Lee, his Instagram post a stinging attack on the ‘lily white’ Oscar nominations.

Then there’s Idris Elba, who gave an address at the British Houses of Parliament that slammed the lack of diversity and in television. Below from Mashable:

The 43-year-old Londoner openly talked about how he had to move to land a major role, saying if he had stayed in Britain he would have been trapped playing “best friends” and “cop sidekick parts”.

“I never saw myself or my culture on TV so I stopped watching TV. Instead I decided to just go out and become TV. I had to transform the way the industry saw me. I had to climb out of the box. In other words, I didn’t go to America because I couldn’t get parts,” he said.

“I went to America because I was running out of parts. The USA has the most famous diversity policy of all – the American Dream. I want that British dream.”

If you are failing to grasp why the Oscars are coming under fire go ahead and watch THIS video. It’s four minutes long, do it, and then say that there isn’t a problem in the way that Hollywood honours its actors.

If you fancy a more light-hearted approach let our local lad Trevor Noah give you his take:

One thing we can be sure of is that Chris Rock, hosting this year’s events, won’t shy away from the topic. Make it rain…

[sources:huffingtonpost,mashable]