14 DAY TRIAL // Andrew Garfield, best known for his take on Spider-Man in the rebooted franchise, was supposed to be one of the presenters at this year’s Oscars awards gala, held this Sunday at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. A new report suggests he backed out of his duties because he was a huge diva, but that he also broke a kid’s heart in the process.
Insiders reveal for PageSix that Garfield agreed to present at the Oscars so, when producers got confirmation, since the theme of the night was heroes, they thought they would bring Miles Scott, aka “Batkid,” up on stage and “officially” name him a superhero.
Miles is famous because he has cancer, and his biggest wish was to be Batman’s aide for one day, which the City of San Francisco made possible through the Make-a-Wish foundation. He’s been Batkid ever since and, according to the report, the Academy wanted to make that official.
As per the initial plan, Garfield would have bestowed this honor on him.
“The academy was going to make him an official superhero during the Oscar ceremony. Andrew Garfield was going to appoint him ‘Batkid.’ But, in the middle of the dress rehearsal, Garfield decided he didn’t like his lines,” says a spy.
“Garfield refused to go by the script. He came up with his own lines. The producers felt that Garfield’s [rewrites] were not appropriate. Garfield had a tantrum. He stormed off. Miles and his family, who were at the rehearsal, were devastated,” the insider continues.
Instead of getting up on stage to become a superhero, Miles was sent to Disneyland, the report further notes. Garfield “the brat,” on his part, didn’t attend the ceremony either, citing some unforeseen obligation that kept him and real-life girlfriend / co-star Emma Stone out of the country.
Instead, the Academy got Chris Evans aka Captain America to present.
PageSix reached for comment on this to all parties involved but, as of the time of writing, has gotten nothing. Still, it feels like there’s something very fishy about the whole story, particularly in the fact that the organizers didn’t just stick with the plan and have Captain America initiate Batkid instead of Spider-Man.
To a boy of 5 who has been through so much, it would have mattered all the same if it was one superhero or another welcoming him in their ranks, one would imagine.
There is also the issue of Garfield acting this way: there are stars capable of much worse (allegedly, of course), but the British star has never come across as a diva kind of guy. On the contrary, in all the interviews we’ve seen of him, he seems like a guy who would go out of his way to please a fan, particularly if said fan is a child battling cancer.
So, take this with a grain of salt.