Academy announces Oscars speech changes

Academy Awards acceptance speeches will feature a ticker on TV screens with a list of people stars want to thank. The days of Oscar-winning actors and actresses forgetting to thank their significant others look set to be over as the Academy has announced new changes designed to ensure speeches are kept to 45 seconds. Potential winners will be asked to write a list of the people they want to thank on cards prior to their triumph being announced, and if they win the monikers will be displayed on screens at the ceremony. Show producer David Hill said: "As you probably are aware and we don't want to embarrass anybody, but there is a long list of winners who have totally forgotten their directors, their husbands, their wives, their children and their animals. "It's a permanent record which could be kept, even framed and kept in the family forever. How cool is that!" The announced was made at yesterday's (08.02.16) Oscars luncheon, where Academy president Cheryl Boone avoided mentioning the #OscarsSoWhite diversity controversy by name. But she did say: "We all know there's an elephant in the room - I have asked the elephant to leave." Several stars, including Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will, have vowed to boycott the ceremony on February 28 over a lack of diversity in the nominations. But some actors have defended the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Speaking about the nominations, Dame Helen Mirren said: "It just so happened it went that way. Idris Elba absolutely would have been nominated for an Oscar [but] not enough people saw - or wanted to see - a film about child soldiers."