Kevin Hart is coming out — to tell you he won’t host the Oscars.
The disgraced comedian concluded his self-inflicted month-long trail of homophobia on Wednesday when he officially declared he would not host the Academy Awards next month — and he doesn’t want you to ask him about it, either.
“I’m not hosting the Oscars this year,” Hart said on “Good Morning America.” “I want everyone to know I’m done with it. It’s a choice that I’ve personally made to say I’m not addressing it anymore.”
Hart already backed out of his role as host of the annual event after he refused to apologize for homophobic comments dating back to 2009-2011, when he used gay slurs and threatened to use violence against his son for playing with dolls. He finally apologized after he was cornered by public outcry, but when fellow comedian Ellen DeGeneres prodded him to reconsider the hosting gig, he vowed to think it over.
And although Hart put an end to speculation on Wednesday, it was never clear whether the Oscars organizers would have allowed him back in the fold.
Hart, seemingly irritated, didn’t provide a direct answer when “Good Morning America” host and former Giants star Michael Strahan asked him if he understood how the comments could have impacted LGBTQ youth.
“I have an understanding that I’ve addressed it, and I’ve said everything that I can possibly say,” Hart said in response. “So I’m over it.”
On Monday, the comedian made a bizarre statement in the third person on his Sirius XM radio show when he said, “Once again, Kevin Hart apologizes for his remarks that hurt members of the LGBTQ community. I apologize.”
Almost every time Hart discusses his comments, he has tried to justify them or complain that he is being targeted.
“We thought it was okay to talk like that, because that’s how we talked to one another,” he said.
Hart has even turned the issue around by suggesting that those who take call him out are the ones who have an issue.
“I love to love,” Hart said on Wednesday. “If you don’t see that, then that means it’s a problem with you. I have nothing else to prove.”
Hart’s handling of the situation strays from other cases of people who have offered sincere apologies before taking concrete action with the LGBTQ community. Former Knicks star Tim Hardaway said on a radio show in 2007 that “I hate gay people,” but he apologized, went on to work with The Trevor Project, and was the first to sign a petition to legalize same-sex marriage in Florida.
Responding to out gay CNN anchor Don Lemon’s suggestion that Hart could similarly become an ally to the community, the comedian said, “That’s not my life dream.”
The Academy, which has not announced its alternative plans without Hart, did not reply to an inquiry from Gay City News.
