UTA Cancels Oscar Party to Host Immigration Rally

UTA will cancel its annual Oscar party in favor of hosting a rally instead, the agency announced Wednesday.

The rally, named “United Voices,” will take place on the Friday of Oscar weekend and will aim to express “the creative community’s growing concern with anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States and its potential chilling effect on the global exchange of ideas and freedom of expression.”

The company has also announced a $250,000 donation to the American Civil Liberties Union and the International Rescue Committee. The ACLU has been at the forefront of the legal battle against President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

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UTA has also created a Crowdrise fundraising page to solicit more donations to the ACLU and the IRC.

“This is a moment that demands our generosity, awareness and restlessness,” wrote UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer in a letter to agency employees announcing the decision. “Our world is a better place for the free exchange of artists, ideas and creative expression. If our nation ceases to be the place where artists the world over can come to express themselves freely, then we cease, in my opinion, to be America.”

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The rally will take place on Friday Feb. 24 between 3-5 p.m. PT outside the UTA company headquarters at 9336 Civic Center Drive in Beverly Hills, CA.