Will
Packer

Packer’s big moment as producer of the Academy Awards telecast in March was soured by questions about how he handled the immediate aftermath of eventual best actor Oscar winner Will Smith’s onstage slap of presenter Chris Rock. While the controversy played out in the global press, Packer quietly went about his other jobs, producing a wide cross-section of film and TV projects, including reality shows “Put a Ring on It” (OWN), which wrapped its third season in June, and “Luda Can’t Cook” (Discovery+), starring Chris “Luda­cris” Bridges. There were also a pair of 2022 big-screen releases — the haunted-house movie “Oracle,” starring Heather Graham, and the action thriller “Beast,” about a recently widowed father (Idris Elba) and his two teenage daughters hunted by a rogue lion.