In this image provided by courtesy of the Sundance Institute and Optimum Productions, Michael Jackson appears in the documentary film, ‘Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall,’ directed by Spike Lee. The film is included among the documentaries premiering at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The festival runs Jan 21-31. (AP)

NEW YORK, Jan 20, (RTRS): Director Spike Lee, leading the call for an Oscars boycott, called on Tuesday for affirmative action in Hollywood to address racial disparity while civil rights leader Al Sharpton urged Americans to “tune out” the Academy Awards ceremony next month.

George Clooney and British actor David Oyelowo joined those calling for changes in the movie industry and at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members nominated no actors of color for the 2016 Oscars for a second straight year.

“If you think back 10 years ago, the Academy was doing a better job. Think about how many more African Americans were nominated. I would also make the argument, I don’t think it’s a problem of who you’re picking as much as it is: How many options are available to minorities in film, particularly in quality films?”, Clooney told Hollywood trade paper Variety.

A day after calling for an Oscars boycott, Lee, who has an honorary Oscar, said Hollywood had fallen behind music and sports in reflecting racial diversity.

Lee cited a National Football League rule that requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior executive jobs.

“Why Can’t Hollywood Do The Same?” the “Chi-Raq” director wrote on his Instagram page.

Sharpton said he planned to meet with other civil rights groups to launch a “serious campaign for people to tune out the Oscars.”

Documentary-maker Moore said he would join the boycott, along with Jada Pinkett-Smith, the wife of snubbed “Concussion” star Will Smith. But as of Tuesday, no other major stars had said they would boycott the Feb. 28 ceremony.

Cheryl Boone Isaccs, the African-American president of the Academy, on Monday pledged big but unspecific changes and a review of the way members are recruited.

Membership of the Academy is by recommendation of two other members, or is automatically awarded to Oscar nominees. The list of the 6,000 or so Academy members has never been disclosed although a 2012 Los Angeles Times study found that its members were nearly 94 percent white and 77 percent male.

Members

In recent years, the Academy has begun publishing lists of new members. They include Chris Rock - the 2016 Oscars host - , Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, comedian Kevin Hart and Steve McQueen, the black British director of 2014 Oscar-winning movie “12 Years a Slave.”

Oyelowo, who was widely perceived to have been snubbed last year for his performance as Martin Luther King Jr. in “Selma,” said the Academy needs to move fast to fix the problem.

“This institution doesn’t reflect its president ... I am an Academy member and it doesn’t reflect me, and it doesn’t reflect this nation,” Oyelowo was quoted by TheWrap.com as saying in a Hollywood gala speech on Monday.

Lee’s call for a boycott has not been universally supported.

John Singleton, Oscar-nominated for directing the 1991 film “Boyz n the Hood”, said nominations for the industry’s most prestigious awards are a lottery.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called the controversy swirling around the lack of diversity among this year’s Oscar nominees a “wake up” call, but he said that he was not as worried about a boycott of the ceremony, which is an economic boost to the region.

“The Academy must keep up with the times or else they will continue to have these conflicts,” said Garcetti, appearing at a press conference on Tuesday at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, where Ben Affleck’s “Live By Night” is shooting. He and other city and industry officials were talking about increased 2015 production numbers as proof that a number of initiatives are working to boost film and TV jobs in the region.

“I agree with the criticism” of the lack of diversity, Garcetti said. “I think Los Angeles reflects the way that the country will be, and it is a reflection of the way the world is today. Our diversity is our strength. Our diversity is part of what makes our cultural mix so interesting here. I think we need to we need to lift up and celebrate those great actors, producers, directors, writers who reflect that same diversity as well.”

He said that he was with Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs on Monday night at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference annual dinner, “and I know she is pushing really hard. She is the first African American woman to head up the Academy, and she is trying to. But that is a closed vote that happens confidentially with folks.”

“I am not as worried about a boycott,” he added. “I respect that, that some people will stay away and they absolutely have the right to do that. This is a huge global event. We still celebrate film no matter what. But it is a wake up call to make sure that we continue to push forward.”

Partnership

He also said that the City Hall efforts to make it easier to shoot in Los Angeles also include trying to “provide pathways for more diverse Angelenos to get in the industry through different partnerships in the industry itself and some of the summer youth jobs programs.”

Now, this is a story all about how Jada Pinkett Smith’s call for an Oscar boycott flipped-turned upside down.

Janet Hubert, who played the original aunt Viv on “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” posted a video on YouTube slamming Pinkett Smith’s own video deliberating over whether to boycott this year’s Oscars after the Academy nominated only white actors for the second year in a row. Spike Lee also announced on Monday that he would not be attending the Oscar ceremony.

“Does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?” Hubert said in the video, referring to her onetime costar Will Smith, who was snubbed for a lead actor nomination for his role in “Concussion.”

“I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and has made millions and millions of dollars from the very people that you’re talking about boycotting just because you didn’t get a nomination, just because you didn’t win?” Hubert said in the four-minute video. “That’s not the way life works, baby.”

Hubert also implied that there are bigger battles to fight in the world, where “people are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are starving. People are trying to pay bills.”

She also noted that it’s unfair of Pinkett Smith to encourage other black actors to jeopardize their careers by skipping Hollywood’s biggest night.

“You ain’t Barack and Michelle Obama. And y’all need to get over yourselves,” she added. “You have a huge production company that you only produce your friends and family and yourself. So you are a part of Hollywood, you are part of the system that is unfair to other actors. So get real.”

Hubert was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid after playing the Banks family matriarch on the hit NBC sitcom from 1990 to 1993. She also recalled a story in which Smith refused to band together with his “Fresh Prince” costars to negotiate a collective raise — a la “Friends” — allegedly saying: “‘My deal is my deal, and y’alls deal is y’alls deal.’”