10 Hollywood stars who were banned or snubbed from awards shows – and why

Despite being one of the stars of the Oscar-nominated flick Hugo, Sacha Baron Cohen reportedly ran into trouble after news broke of his plan to dress up as his autocrat character from another film, The Dictator, on the Oscars red carpet in 2012. According to Deadline, Sacha’s ticket for the event was withheld until he agreed to pull the stunt.

The Academy later relented and Sacha walked the carpet in costume – famously spilling “ashes” on Ryan Seacrest. While he attended the carpet, further reports revealed he was absent from both the ceremony and the afterparty.

A ban that needs no introduction, Will Smith received a 10-year ban for slapping presenter Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. The moment took place after the comedian joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, a choice stemming from her struggle with alopecia. The Men in Black actor also resigned from the Oscars Academy after the incident, calling his actions “inexcusable”.

"For the first time in my career, [I was] having to deal with a level of disapproval that I never had to experience," Will told Radio 1Xtra in 2025, adding that the incident prompted him to take a “big, strong, honest look at myself”.

Courtney Love, then-frontwoman of Hole and widow of Kurt Cobain, reportedly got into an altercation at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party in 1995 and later upset staff members.

The singer allegedly tried to attack Vanity Fair journalist Lynn Hirschberg with Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar, believing her reporting had portrayed the singer poorly in the months prior to Cobain’s death in 1994. The magazine’s former editor, Graydon Carter, also wrote in his 2025 memoir, When the Going Was Good, that Courtney’s name appeared in the party’s “complaints box” at some point, where staff could anonymously share reasons they thought certain stars should be banned.

Tom Cruise has reportedly been snubbed from the Golden Globes following his decision to return his three trophies in 2021, citing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s (HFPA) lack of diversity. An exposé by the Los Angeles Times revealed that the HFPA, who vote on the Globes, had also received complaints of elitism.

The Mission: Impossible star has not attended the awards show since, despite his 2023 film Top Gun: Maverick being nominated.

For many years, Joan Rivers and her daughter Melissa were known for their sharp fashion commentary on red carpets, including E!’s pre-show coverage of the Emmys, but they were noticeably sidelined from the awards show in 2004. After the hosting duo moved from the network to the TV Guide Channel, they were barred from doing pre-show coverage due to E!’s exclusive broadcasting rights.

Joan called the situation “a mess” to The Associated Press, per TODAY, though the pair later got the chance to host the Golden Globes red carpet that same year.

Country singer Morgan Wallen was allegedly banned from attending the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards in 2021 after a video of him using a racial slur surfaced online. Morgan, who was nominated for Album of the Year for Dangerous: The Double Album, was also temporarily suspended from his record label.

While the ban was lifted the following year, Morgan has been noticeably absent at the prestigious event in recent years, despite receiving coveted awards like Entertainer of the Year in 2024.

Comedian Russell Brand was reportedly banned from attending the afterparty for the British GQ Men of the Year Awards in 2013 after making a controversial joke during his acceptance speech for the Oracle of the Year award. The joke, made at the expense of the show’s sponsor Hugo Boss, “divided” the room, Russell later wrote in a piece for The Guardian.

“The jokes about Hugo Boss were not intended to herald a campaign to destroy them,” he wrote, later calling the spectacle of awards shows “absurd”.

Pretty Woman star Richard Gere was rumoured to be banned from presenting at the Oscars for 20 years following a political protest during the 1993 ceremony. The unscripted moment allegedly resulted in his notorious ban, though Entertainment Weekly later reported that his comments upset one individual producer, rather than the Academy.

The actor continued to attend the event to support his films like Chicago (2003) but didn’t appear as a presenter again until 2013.

Notorious for his award show behaviour, Kanye West – aka “Ye” – was banned from performing at the Grammys in 2022 due to his online behaviour. The rapper’s album Donda received multiple nominations, but Ye was also reportedly banned due to comments made against Trevor Noah, who hosted the event.

The performer later garnered more contention at the event in 2025, when his wife Bianca Censori wore a controversial sheer outfit on the red carpet. 

Mo’Nique may have won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2010 thanks to her role in Precious, but the star has since claimed she was “blackballed” from the industry after director Lee Daniels took issue with her not mentioning him in her acceptance speech.

“He said to me, ‘Mo’Nique, you’ve been blackballed.’ I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because you didn’t play the game,’” she told The Hollywood Reporter. She added that people have said she could be “difficult”, but wasn’t going to let people take advantage of her.