Mark who? Sly Stallone’s brother hits out over Oscar snub

A furious Frank Stallone has slammed the Academy in a foul-mouthed tirade for snubbing big brother Sylvester in the best supporting actor category at this year’s Oscars. The Rocky star was widely backed to bag the prize following a Golden Globe award for his critically acclaimed turn as the boxer in Ryan Coogler’s spin-off movie “Creed”. But the statuette went instead to Britain’s Mark Rylance for “Bridge of Spies”, in one of the biggest shocks of Sunday’s gala ceremony at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.

The Academy should be ashamed of themselves. It’s as clear as the nose on your face that Sly won. Mark who?

Frank Stallone

The younger Stallone insisted that Rylance should have “been embarrassed” to supplant an actor who had done a “historic job” creating two cinema icons that have appeared in films spanning four decades. “Mark Rylance couldn’t even comb his hair for Christ sake this is the 3rd time Sly’s gotten ripped off Rocky, Copland and Creed. New Voters,” Frank tweeted. He later calmed down enough to admit Rylance was a fine actor. Sly’s underdog prizefighter turned world champion boxer Rocky Balboa spawned seven movies grossing an inflation-adjusted $1.7 billion in North America alone, while four Rambo films featuring irritable Vietnam vet John Rambo took in $674 million.

Please understand my brother is so em motional (sic) because he is just very protective and only wants the best for me. Life is good!

Sylvester Stallone in response to his brother’s outburst