Sean Penn Skipped Oscars to Meet President Zelenskyy

Sean Penn won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15 for his performance as Colonel Lockjaw in Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, but he did not attend the ceremony.

Last year's supporting actor winner Kieran Culkin accepted the award on Penn's behalf and joked that he "couldn't be here this evening – or didn't want to," prompting questions about the actor's absence.

Penn had also skipped the BAFTAs and the Screen Actors Guild Awards despite winning at both. It later emerged that he opted out of the Oscars because he had a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who shared a photo of their union on social media shortly after.

"Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is. You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war. This is still true today. And we know that you will continue to stand with our country and our people."

This is a developing story.

Ukraine

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