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Casey Affleck withdraws from presenting best-actress award at Oscars

Academy tradition dictates that the winner of the best-actor award presents the best-actress award the following year.

Casey Affleck has withdrawn from presenting the best-actress award at the Academy Awards.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed the news originally reported by Deadline.

“We appreciate the decision to keep the focus on the show and on the great work of this year," the Academy said in a statement.

Deadline reported that "the specter of Affleck presenting would have created controversy."

Past allegations of sexual misconduct dogged Affleck, 42, during awards season last year. But the actor earned a best-actor Oscar nomination for his role in Manchester By the Sea and went on to win the award.

Academy tradition dictates that the winner of the best-actor award presents the best-actress award the following year.

In 2010, two women who worked for Affleck on the experimental film I'm Still Here filed two lawsuits accusing him of repeated sexual harassment and disparagement.

Critics have spoken up about about the possibility of Affleck presenting. A petition on Change.org with more than 19,000 signatures demanded, "Don't let Casey Affleck hand off the 2018 best actress Oscar." The petitioners claimed victory on Thursday after he withdrew.

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