Here's why Brad Pitt refused to accept honorary Cesar at French Oscars

Hollywood star Brad Pitt snubbed French Oscars, the Cesars,  by reportedly turning down an honorary award.

The  Cesars were awarded Friday in a poisonous atmosphere with Roman Polanski -- whose new film has the highest number of nominations -- staying away from the ceremony.

Amid mounting speculation there would be no honorary award, a first in Cesar history, Le Parisien daily reported that Pitt had thought it wiser, given the circumstances, to decline.

 Roman Polanski won best director for An Officer and a Spy at a fractious ceremony for the French Oscars, the Cesars, that ended in walkouts and recrimination in Paris early Saturday.

The entire French academy had been forced to resign earlier this month amid fury that the veteran — wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 — had topped the list of nominations.

Protesters chanting "Lock up Polanski!" tried to storm the theatre where the ceremony was being held before being pushed back by police firing tear gas.

And France’s Culture Minister Franck Riester had warned that giving the maker of Rosemary’s Baby a Cesar would be "symbolically bad given the stance we must take against sexual and sexist violence".

But Polanski won two awards, best adapted screenplay and best director — with the latter prompting Adele Haenel, who was nominated for best actress for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, to storm out, crying "Shame!"