A street artist taking inspiration from the Oscar-nominated film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is taking aim at the entertainment industry just days before the Academy Awards.
Three massive, consecutive billboards in Los Angeles — located just a few kilometres from where the Oscars will be held on Sunday — were covered over on Wednesday with messages attacking Hollywood for purportedly shielding pedophiles.
“And the Oscar for the biggest pedophile goes to…” reads one sign. It is quickly followed by another bearing the message: “We all knew and still no arrests.”
The first of the covered billboards appeared near Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, with the other two located close by. (Courtesy NBC)
A final billboard states: “Name names on stage or shut the hell up.”
The messages are printed in black text across a giant swath of red fabric, appearing similar to the signage depicted in Martin McDonagh’s Academy Award-nominated film, about a woman seeking action from local police for her daughter’s unsolved assault and murder.
The covered billboards mimic the signage from the Oscar-nominated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, in which a grieving mother (Frances McDormand) antagonizes the local police force over its lack of progress in searching for her daughter’s killer. (TIFF)
A conservative artist who goes by the name Sabo is taking credit for the signage, telling the Hollywood Reporter that the messages are meant to criticize Hollywood figures who enable sexual harassment through their silence.
Sabo has previously criticized celebrities via provocative faux advertisements and altered signage, including a poster campaign skewering Meryl Streep for her past association with disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein and a movie billboard modified to mock Al Franken, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat in December following allegations of sexual harassment.
