Chris Rock will not be stepping down from his role as Oscars award host, despite pressure for him to boycott the ceremony over its lack of racial diversity.
The Academy Awards has faced widespread criticism since it emerged not one black actor had been nominated in any of the main categories for the second year in a row.
Figures including Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and Spike Lee have pledged to boycott the ceremony, while the hashtag #Oscarsssowhite has trended on Twitter.
But Academy Awards producer Reginald Hudlin said that while Rock will go ahead with his hosting role as planned, he had scrapped his original speech and was writing a new monologue featuring a number of jokes about the controversy.
"Chris is hard at work," he said.
"He and his writing staff locked themselves in a room. As things got a little provocative and exciting, he said, 'I'm throwing out the show I wrote and writing a new show'.
“Chris is that thorough. He's that brilliant, and I have 1000 per cent confidence that he will deliver something that people will be talking about for weeks.
“And, yes, the Academy is ready for him to do that. They're excited about him doing that. They know that's what we need. They know that's what the public wants, and we deliver what the people want.”
The 50-year-old comedian has already joined mounting criticism about the lack of diversity at the Oscars, calling it “The White BET Awards”.
