Should the Academy accept this kind of Violence on
stage !?
There are calls for the Academy to strip Will
Smith of his Best Actor Oscar after he walked on stage and slapped comedian
Chris Rock who was presenting an award on stage, after making a joke about Jada
Pinkett-Smith's hair.
The Academy, in its code of conduct, is known to
take a very a dim view of violence of any kind.
Could Will Smith be stripped of his Oscar?
Academy faces pressure to respond after disgraced star broke Code of Conduct
drawn up in wake of MeToo Movement
Actor Will Smith stormed the Oscars stage and struck
comedian Chris Rock across the face for joking about his wife
The moment left attendees and viewers stunned with
calls for the Academy to strip Smith of his accolade
Assault violates Academy Code of Conduct set up in
wake of Me Too Movement
LAPD said no reports of assault had been filed but was
'aware of an incident'
Rock cracked a joke comparing Jada Pinkett Smith's
tightly cropped hair to Demi Moore's appearance in the film 'G.I. Jane' and
suggested she appear in a sequel
By JAMES
GORDON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED:
06:59, 28 March 2022 | UPDATED: 08:23, 28 March 2022
There are
calls for the Academy to strip Will Smith of his Best Actor Oscar after he
walked on stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock who was presenting an award on
stage, after making a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith's hair.
The
Academy, in its code of conduct, is known to take a very a dim view of violence
of any kind.
After the
award ceremony was over it tweeted: 'The Academy does not condone violence of
any form. Tonight we are delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy Awards
winners, who deserve this moment of recognition from their peers and movie
lovers around the world.'
The Academy reestablished its Code of Conduct in 2017 during the Me Too Movement.
'Academy
membership is a privilege offered to only a select few within the global community
of filmmakers,' AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson wrote to members following various
scandals in the industry.
On Sunday
night, in the Dolby Theatre, there was complete bewilderment in the moments
after the assault with took place with those present initially wondering if the
punch was part of a stunt.
It took a
few moments for the normally unflappable Rock to process but the colorful
language from Smith quickly confirmed it wasn't any kind of joke at all.
The punch
threw the entire Oscars broadcast into chaos as producers were frantically
forced into deciding how to deal with the on-air assault, with Smith still yet
to receive his Best Actor statuette.
Could Will
Smith be stripped of his Oscar? The Academy faces pressure to respond after the
King Richard star broke the Academy's Code of Conduct drawn up during Me Too
Movement
Under normal circumstances, Smith would have almost
certainly have been removed by security guards and escorted out of the
auditorium for the attack, but the slap came moments before the award for Best
Actor was to be announced.
Only three
people in the building knew that Smith was to receive the coveted prize
including the show's producer Will Packer and two accountants from Price
Waterhouse Coopers who oversee the tabulating of the Oscars results before the
winning envelopes are handed out and opened onstage.
Producers
were therefore placed in an impossible situation as to how to deal with the
assault.
Smith's rep
could be seen rushing to be by his side as the actor sat back down next to his
wife, while the producer of the entire Oscars show, Packer, was also seen
racing to Smith's table and said something to him.
The LAPD
were also informed of what had occurred on stage but revealed later that no
complaint had been filed.
During the
commercial break which followed, Will Smith was pulled aside and comforted by
Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry appeared to motion for him to brush it off.
Smith's
publicist continued speaking with him during the final commercial breaks of the
Oscars broadcast which were quickly inserted into the broadcast while producers
dealt with the panic behind the scenes.
Backstage
the academy told gathered journalists not to ask any of the actors present
about the slap seen around the world, but it was all that anyone was talking
about at the Oscar parties that take place after the show was done.
Fifteen
minutes after the assault, Smith who appeared shaken picked up the biggest
accolade of his life as he collected the Best Actor award making a tearful
speech in which he attempted to link his outburst to his character in King
Richard as someone who 'defended his family.'
He also
took a moment to issue an apology to the Academy and to his fellow nominees,
but that may not be enough with calls for him now to be stripped of the award.
'It's
basically assault. Everyone was just so shocked in the room, it was so
uncomfortable' one executive told the New York Post.
'I think
Will would not want to give his Oscar back, but who knows what will happen
now.'
Director
Judd Apatow was appalled by the behavior he witnessed onstage.
'He could
have killed him. That's pure out of control rage and violence. They've heard a
million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshman in
the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind.'
Director
Apatow was appalled by the behavior he witnessed onstage
Smith could
be seen appearing to wipe tears from his eyes as Denzel Washington later walked
him back to his front row seat.
Smith
revealed during his acceptance speech Washington had told him 'that at his
"highest moment, that's when the devil comes for you".
'In this
business, you got to be able to have people disrespecting you. You've got to
smile and pretend like that's okay,' Smith said.
'I want to
be a vessel for love. I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena. Thank you
for entrusting me with your story. That's what I want to do. I want to be an
ambassador of that kind of love, and care and concern.'
The
Academy's CEO Dawn Hudson highlighted values the Academy valued at the height
of the Me Too Movement including 'fostering supportive environments, and
respect for human dignity.'
'In
addition to achieving excellence in the field of motion picture arts and
sciences, members must also behave ethically by upholding the Academy's values
of respect for human dignity, inclusion, and a supportive environment that
fosters creativity.
'There is
no place in the Academy for people who abuse their status, power or influence
in a manner that violates recognized standards of decency. The Academy is
categorically opposed to any form of abuse, harassment or discrimination on the
basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, age,
religion, or nationality. The Board of Governors believes that these standards
are essential to the Academy's mission and reflective of our values,' Hudson
detailed in a statement as reported by Variety.
Legally,
Smith may have got away with it. Late on Sunday night, the LAPD released a
statement saying that no police report had yet been filed.
'LAPD
investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during
the Academy Awards program. The incident involved one individual slapping
another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report.
'If the
involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available
to complete an investigative report.'
Many users
on Twitter stated that they wanted to see Smith stripped of his Best Actor gong
The Academy
has taken action against members in the past.
Disgraced
mogul Harvey Weinstein was stripped of his membership in the organization after
he was was found guilty of decades of sexual misbehavior, including allegations
of rape.
In 2017,
Greg P. Russell, a sound mixer on 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,
was been stripped of his Oscar nomination after he was caught phoning his
fellow members from the Academy's Sound Branch 'to make them aware of his work
on the film.
The calls
were a 'direct violation of a campaign regulation that prohibits telephone
lobbying,' a statement from the Academy said.
In 2014,
the song Alone Yet Not Alone from the little-known film of the same name had
its nomination for Best Original Song rescinded after composer Bruce Broughton,
an Academy member and former governor, contacted fellow branch members by
email, breaking Academy rules.
GUARDIAN:
( ...) “Following the ceremony, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed in a statement that it was “aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program. The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report.”
“If the
involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available
to complete an investigative report,” the statement concluded.
Shortly
thereafter, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued their own
statement: “The Academy does not condone violence of any form. Tonight we are
delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy Awards winners, who deserve this moment
of recognition from their peers and movie lovers around the world.”
Will Smith: can his career survive – or is the
Fresh Prince finished?
For three bravado-filled decades, he was box office
dynamite, pulling in $9 billion. How will the star now win back the public’s
esteem – and keep Hollywood onside?
Steve Rose
@steverose7
Mon 28 Mar 2022
17.10 BST
It is not
often an actor experiences both the high point and the low point of their
careers on the same night, but you can always trust Will Smith to push the
boundaries of movie stardom. His win as best actor ought to have been the
cherry on top of one of the most successful film careers in history – except
Smith himself had already sabotaged the moment, the night, and possibly his future
when he got up on stage 40 minutes earlier and slapped Chris Rock for an
inappropriate joke about his wife. Smith could spend the rest of his life
looking back on Sunday night as the best of times and the worst, but which one
will prevail? Is Smith big enough to survive such a jarring incident – or is
the Fresh Prince past his sell-by date?
The unique
nature of both the incident and the actor have us grasping for precedent. In
2017, Casey Affleck went through the similarly awkward motions of accepting
best actor Oscar, for Manchester By the Sea, even as allegations of earlier
sexual harassment resurfaced, turning what should have been a huge career
bounce into a damaging trial by public opinion. Affleck denied the accusation
but his reputation has never really recovered. He’s a rising character actor,
though. Will Smith is in a different league, arguably one of his own.
Richard
Williams, the character Smith played in King Richard, drew up an 85-page plan
for how to turn his daughters Venus and Serena into tennis champs. It worked.
Similarly, in the early 1990s, Smith drew up a plan to become the biggest movie
star in the world, analysing box-office numbers and movie formulas. That worked
too. He has ruled Hollywood for over 30 years, his films grossing over $9
billion at the box office, and he has an estimated net worth of at least $350
million. He is one of the few actors whose name can open a movie and usually
guarantee a $100m box office (King Richard has performed far below that, but
then it was released simultaneously on HBO Max). Smith’s projects in the
pipeline include slavery thriller Emancipation, for which Apple paid $120m for
the rights, a sequel to the Netflix sci-fi Bright, a travel series with
National Geographic and Bad Boys 4. Is Smith simply too big to fail?
“I don’t
think anybody’s too big to fail,” says film publicist Charles McDonald. “Not in
this day and age.” In recent years, entertainment figures once considered
unassailable have been swiftly dethroned, McDonald points out, not least by the
#MeToo movement. Harvey Weinstein was, after all, considered a fixture of the
movie industry. “I don’t think it’s a question of size,” says McDonald. “I
think it’s just a question of who you are, what your position is, and how
you’re thought of. I think probably Will Smith can surface – if he does the
right thing, in the right time.”
You have to show proper contrition … then behave in
such a way that people don’t believe it’s going to happen again
There is a
crisis-management protocol to situations like this, says Bumble Ward, another
seasoned film publicist. “The steps are always the same. You have to show
proper contrition. You have to apologise to those you’ve hurt. And then you
have to behave in such a way that people don’t believe it’s going to happen
again. But it has to be a proper apology. I think he did a lot of that work in
his speech.”
During the
commercial break between the actor slapping Rock and his acceptance speech,
Smith’s publicist Meredith O Sullivan was spotted in discussion with Smith at
his table, as was Denzel Washington. When he went up to collect his award,
Smith clearly did not give the speech he’d originally planned. He cited Richard
Williams as “a fierce defender of his family”. He relayed Washington’s advice
to him moments earlier: “At your highest moment, be careful – that’s when the
devil comes for you.” And he professed that “love will make you do crazy
things”. He also apologised to the Academy and to his fellow nominees but,
pointedly, not to Rock himself.
Another
industry insider, who did not wish to be named, predicted that Smith would be
making a public apology to Rock pretty soon. Rock would likely reciprocate and
apologise to Jada Pinkett Smith. The event would then be swept under the red
carpet as quickly as possible. That process was already under way on Sunday
night. Host Amy Schumer made light of the event, saying: “Did I miss anything?
There’s, like, a different vibe in here.” Presenting best actress, Anthony
Hopkins also seemed ready to move on. “Will Smith said it all,” he said, to
nervous laughter from the audience. “What more can be said? Let’s have peace
and love and quiet.”
But there
is quite a lot more to be said. This crisis is by no means over. The Smith
brand has not looked entirely rock-solid in recent years. In fact, it has been
in recovery mode. His 2016 movie Collateral Beauty, an excruciating self-help
tearjerker, was the biggest flop of his career. More damaging still was 2013’s
After Earth, a self-funded sci-fi movie designed to showcase the talents of the
entire Smith clan: Will and Jada co-produced, Will co-wrote, and reportedly
co-directed, with M Night Shyamalan. He also co-starred alongside his son,
Jaden, who was parachuted into the lead role.
Sometimes
it felt less like a film and more like an exposure of the Smith family’s
weaknesses and weirdnesses, compounded by a series of bizarre interviews (the
Smith children’s contemptuous comments about traditional schools made them seem
out of touch) along with revelations about the Smith parents’ not-so-private
life. In 2020, Will and Jada opted to air their relationship issues in public
on Jada’s talk show Red Table Talk, where she spoke of their separation and her
“entanglement” with another man – rapper August Alsina – as Smith nodded along.
At the same
time, there has always been a messianic aspect to Smith’s public persona. He
has self-belief and bravado in droves, from his rap career to his portrayal of
Muhammad Ali in 2002, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. As last
year’s memoir Will laid out, Smith has been on something of a journey lately,
re-examining his childhood and his father’s abuse of his mother, but also going
on ayahuasca trips in the Amazon. Smith evidently believes in his own sense of
purpose, as he made clear in his Oscars speech. “In this time in my life, in
this moment,” he said, “I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and
be in this world. I’m being called on in my life to love people, and to protect
people, and to be a river to my people.”
Who is
actually calling upon Smith to fill this role, and is he living up to it? That
is open to question. The public might easily find such pronouncements
off-putting. Showbiz careers live and die by public opinion. Some are wondering
if Smith’s career might now be at a tipping point. Others expect this to blow
over. “I think he can survive,” says McDonald. “I think people have a great
affection for him. You can’t resort to violence like that, obviously, and the language
he used afterwards, despite the provocation. But I think there will be sympathy
for him.”
Other
Oscar-winners on the night might not be feeling much sympathy for Smith right
now, given that his actions effectively drowned out their moments of glory. As
for Smith’s own achievements, he might well have cancelled out what should have
been the greatest night of his life.
Oscars condemns Will Smith slap and launches
review
Published11
hours ago
The Oscars film academy has condemned Will Smith for
slapping Chris Rock at Sunday's ceremony, and has launched a formal review of
the incident.
A statement said it would "explore further action
and consequences" in accordance with California law, and the body's
standards of conduct.
Smith
slapped Rock in the face on stage after the comic made a joke about the actor's
wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Moments
later Smith won his first ever Oscar - for best actor in King Richard.
Rock took
aim at Pinkett Smith's shaved head, a result of the hair-loss condition
alopecia.
The
incident cast a pall on what should have been Hollywood's biggest celebration
and overshadowed others' achievements, one member of the Academy of Motion
Pictures, Arts and Sciences - which organises the Oscars ceremony - told the
BBC.
"I
woke up so bummed out about what Will Smith did," said the member.
"To me, he stole the limelight. I don't think that was the place to be so
violent. Most people were shocked. There were children there. It was a place to
celebrate." She asked not to be named.
Monday's
statement from the organisation behind the Oscars said: "The Academy
condemns the actions of Mr Smith at last night's show. We have officially
started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and
consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California
law."
Shortly
after Sunday night's incident, Smith was seen apparently being comforted by
actors Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry.
Actor and
comedian Tiffany Haddish, who co-starred with Jada Pinkett Smith in the 2017
comedy Girls Trip, described the exchange to People magazine as "the most
beautiful thing I've ever seen". She said Smith had stood up for his wife.
However,
many said Smith was wrong to use violence.
Marshall
Herskovitz, a film producer, tweeted early on Monday morning: "I call upon
the Academy, of which I am a member, to take disciplinary action against Will
Smith. He disgraced our entire community tonight."
Roger Ross
Williams, a black member of the Academy's board of governors, told the
Hollywood Reporter that the confrontation drove him to tears because "it
reinforces stereotypes about black people and it just hurts me to my
core".
Actor
Wendell Pierce, whose credits include HBO's The Wire and Treme, said he was
hoping for "a public act of contrition" from Smith.
But he
pointed out that Rock once produced a documentary on how black hairstyles are
tied to identity.
"That
film showed an appreciation for Jada's, and Black women's, struggle with the disease
of alopecia. The joke did not. It insulted and provoked," he wrote on
Twitter.
On social
media, some users suggested Smith's actions could have violated the Academy's
code of conduct and wondered whether Smith would be asked to return his award
for Best Actor, which he collected onstage shortly after slapping Rock.
The code
states the Academy is "categorically opposed to any form of abuse,
harassment or discrimination", including members acting "in a manner
that violates standards of decency".
It also
reserves the right for the Academy board to suspend or expel those in violation
of the code.
However,
Hollywood insiders like actor Whoopi Goldberg have said it is unlikely Smith
will lose his award.
"We're
not going to take that Oscar from him," she predicted. "There will be
consequences I'm sure, but I don't think that's what they're going to do."
Smith
earned the award - his first - for his portrayal of Richard Williams, the
father of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams, in the film King Richard.
In a
tearful acceptance speech, he apologised to his fellow nominees - but not to
Rock - and said "love will make you do crazy things".
His wife
has previously described hair loss due to her autoimmune disease as
"terrifying".
She looked
unamused when Rock quipped to her: "Jada, can't wait for GI Jane 2,"
in an apparent reference to her shaved head and a 1997 film in which the
titular character sports a buzz cut.
Moments
later, Smith walked on stage and struck Rock before returning to his seat and
shouting: "Keep my wife's name out of your [expletive] mouth."
Comic Kathy
Griffin said the slap sets a dangerous precedent.
"Now
we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs
and theatres," she wrote.
Rock
declined to press charges and has not commented publicly about the slap.
In the
moments after the altercation, he quipped that it was probably "the
greatest night in the history of television", before presenting the award
for best documentary.
With
reporting from Regan Morris in Los Angeles
