Ugh, the chilling of speech continues to get chillier in our new authoritarian America. Case in point: At a ceremony for a set of science prizes that has become a favorite event of VCs and tech titans, celebrity presenter Seth Rogen couldn't even take a few jabs about the money they all gave to Donald Trump without them being cut from the official video of the event.

As the Hollywood Reporter first discovered this week, after the official video of Saturday's Breakthrough Prize Ceremony went up on YouTube, a couple of Rogen's critical comments from the event, directed at members of the audience, were scrubbed from the recording for reasons we can only assume.

All the uncomfortable alliances with Trump that Silicon Valley billionaires made in the last few months to save their skins or their company's bottom lines may continue to come back and bite them in the ass if Trump's tariffs continue screwing with stock prices.

But Hollywood, which continues to have its own alliances with tech in the form of production studios like Apple and Netflix, isn't really having it. And those tensions were laid bare when the tech world tried to have its usual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony two weeks ago in Santa Monica.

The prizes, which date back to 2013, are given out in the categories of mathematics, fundamental physics, and life sciences. They were founded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, along with Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki, and they're funded by the same group along with Ma Huateng, Jack Ma, and for a decade the ceremony was held in Mountain View, up until 2023, when it moved to LA and has been hosted by James Corden. This year's event was held April 5 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, and Katy Perry sang "Firework"!

Per the Hollywood Reporter, Rogen took the stage after downing a dirty martini backstage with co-presenter Edward Norton, and let things rip after Norton began by praising Brin and Zuckerberg et al for underwriting the prizes, making reference to an absent Elon Musk. (Inauguration donors Jeff Bezos and Zuckerberg could be counted as targets as well.)

"And it’s amazing that others [who have been] in this room underwrote electing a man who, in the last week, single-handedly destroyed all of American science," Rogen reportedly said — though we can't seen it in the YouTube video. "It’s amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320 million and RFK Jr, very fast."

In the YouTube version, around the 1:17:20 mark, Norton and Rogen take the stage, and then it cuts to Norton, who was actually referring to the audience's response to Rogen's comment, says "light applause," to which Rogen responds, "I’d say that’s a smattering."

Rogen made a second quip that was cut, in reference to a wheel, joking that this audience would "roll right" given the chance, according to a source who was there that night, per the Hollywood Reporter.

The official word from the ceremony organizers, to the Hollywood Reporter, on why Rogen's comments were cut: "This year’s ceremony lasted longer than the prior few years, and several edits were made in order to meet the originally planned run time."

Given that these awards weren't being broadcast anywhere, it's not like the ceremony's run time mattered to anyone. So, that's probably bullshit.

Better not let the angry man in the White House know that your little science awards likes to hire commie actors who say critical things about his administration!