Glenn Close will not present at the Oscars after testing positive for COVID-19

Glenn Close will not present at the 95th Academy Awards after testing positive for COVID-19, CBS News has confirmed. 

The veteran performer, 75, was scheduled to join a packed roster of celebrities who will announce the prizes at Sunday night’s ceremony. Among the personalities set to present awards at the Oscars are Riz Ahmed, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe and more. Harrison Ford, who acted opposite Close in the 1997 action thriller “Air Force One,” which itself earned Academy Award nominations for sound and film editing, is also presenting at the show.

Close’s publicist, Catherine Olim, confirmed that the actor contracted COVID-19 and would no longer be able to attend Sunday’s Oscars ceremony.

“She was very much looking forward to taking part in the show,” Olim said in a statement. The publicist did not share details about the extent of Close’s symptoms. The Academy has not commented on the news of her illness, nor has the voting body provided information about who will replace her on stage Sunday evening.

Close was reportedly meant to announce the winner of this year’s Oscar for best picture, according to Deadline. The 2023 nominees in the category are: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness” and “Women Talking.”

An eight-time Academy Award nominee, Close has earned critical acclaim over the course of her decades-long career in film, television and on Broadway. In addition to garnering Oscar nods for her roles in movies such as “The Big Chill,” “Fatal Attraction” and, most recently, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Close has won multiple Emmys, Tonys and Screen Actors Guild Awards. 

In 2019 she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.