I know we’re all exhausted from the whiplash of the Trump administration’s latest headlines, so let’s take a break and talk about something just as dramatic, but with better lighting the Oscars, specifically the mess surrounding Carla Gascon, the now disqualified campaign darling of Netflix whose past hateful tweets resurfaced faster than a Hollywood reboot at this point, it is almost a rite of passage. A celebrity is riding high only for the Internet to unearth some wildly offensive post from their past. Cue the outrage, the frantic PR response and the inevitable social media discourse on cancel culture, accountability and whether Twitter should come with an expiration date. But here is the thing, this is not a new phenomenon, and yet Hollywood still doesn’t seem to know how to handle it. Let’s start with gas gone downfall. Netflix poured millions into her Oscar campaign hoping to secure a historic win, but when her old tweets, packed with transphobia, xenophobia and all around bile, resurfaced, it was game over. Yet this raises a bigger question, why does this keep happening? The answer is simple, Hollywood’s PR machine is somehow still running on Windows 95 How does a major studio not have one intern whose entire job it is to spend an afternoon scrolling through a nominee’s social media before investing millions into their campaign? We background checked babysitters more thoroughly than Netflix vetted Gascon. Of course, Gascon is responsible for what she posted, no doubt, but let’s not pretend that she is the only one here at fault. Her managers, publicists and Netflix all bear responsibility. The industry pours billions into branding stars, carefully curating the image to make them Oscar friendly, yet no one thought to do a basic social media audit. This isn’t just about bad PR. It’s about bad business in today’s digital age, a scandal like this doesn’t just hurt a single performer, it damages the entire production. Netflix now has to scramble its Oscar campaign money evaporated, and a film that could have been celebrated, even though it’s controversial, is now overshadowed by controversy. A 2023 survey from the PR firm Weber Shandwick found that 77% of consumers say that a company’s values influence their purchasing decisions. That means brands, whether in entertainment or beyond, cannot afford to ignore these issues. Protecting your investment starts well before the campaign of a film, and damn sure not after the scandal. Of course, it’s inevitable that there is damage control and gas gone response well, to politely say it was a master class and what not to do, she denied wrongdoing, as though we couldn’t see with our eyes, gave a vague kind of apology, refused to be held accountable, as though her bigotry and being held accountable for it were worse than the harm of her words. Compare that to filmmaker James Gunn, whose decade old tweets resurfaced in 2018 and he immediately took responsibility, expressed genuine remorse, and spent years rebuilding trust. Disney eventually rehired him for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three. So really, what is the takeaway here, other than a social media audit and not being a terrible person, accountability that’s right demonstrating growth. If there’s no real remorse, no action and no meaningful reflection, people can see right through it, that kind of brings us to the big question, is there ever a path to redemption? Yeah, that it all matters on one word that is effort. You know, we, the people, can forgive, but only when it’s clear that someone understands what they did and why it was harmful, and also shows that they’ve been actively, actively working to make amends. And that means not just treating an apology like a PR check box, but actually changing behavior, listening to impacted communities and putting in the work, and importantly, some things just don’t deserve a second act. Gascon wasn’t caught making a dumb joke at 16. She was making harmful targeted attacks well into adulthood. There is a difference between youthful ignorance and entrenched prejudice. At the end of the day, this saga isn’t just about one person. It’s a lesson in how industries, brands and individuals handle or fail to handle public accountability. The Gascon debacle was avoidable, predictable and entirely self inflicted. So if Hollywood wants to avoid another PR nightmare, maybe it’s time to hire that intern, and for everyone else, maybe it’s kind of time to think about things you know before you post them. Do you really want them read aloud at your Oscar acceptance speech? Because if the Internet has proven anything, it’s that what’s tweeted today can come back to bite you tomorrow. You.