Chris Rock Says He’s Still Processing Getting Slapped By Will Smith At The Oscars
2022’s hottest new miniseries The Slappening!, starring Will Smith, his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith and Chris Rock, is still going on with more plot twists than an episode of Cobra Kai. And the hits just keep on coming! (sorry y’all, I had to). After the Smith’s bargain bin apology, now it’s being revealed that after the incident Jada was allegedly laughing and Will may or may not have been asked to leave. Meanwhile, in Boston, Chris has finally emerged to sort of address the situation.
Variety reports that Chris arrived to a sold-out crowd at the Wilbur Theater in Boston. He walked out to applause, which I’m sure made him recoil in fear at first since people use their hands to make that clapping noise. But as he realized they were using both hands to make that sound instead of his face, he was more at ease.
After a few additional moments of applause, Rock addressed the elephant in the room.
“How was your weekend?” he began with a knowing wink, drawing a wave of laughter. “I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny.”
“I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing” Chris Rock @ The Wilbur in Boston for his opening show. Wed 30th March. pic.twitter.com/vKd12JVSSh
— Haydn Dunn (@HaydnDunn) March 31, 2022
Kudos to Chris for taking the high road, but I’m sure he’s just as tired of this mess as we are. And speaking of tired messes, the Helen of Troy of this year’s Oscars, Jada “My Man Slaps Bitches” Pinkett-Smith, allegedly found great joy in seeing her husband slap someone in front of millions of people. Page Six released a video of the slap from a different angle, where moments after Will attacked Chris, Jada is seen laughing from her seat as Will strolls back probably thinking to himself “Why you laughing? My career is OVAH!”
A TikTok user shared a video showing the “Red Table Talk” co-host guffawing Sunday night as Smith returned to his seat while Rock said, “Wow, Will Smith just smacked the s–t out of me.”
As soon as the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alum, 53, began screaming, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth,” Pinkett Smith, 50, did not appear to make a peep — or move a muscle — until she chuckled when Rock, 57, referred to the incident as “the greatest night in the history of television.”
@justinunsworth1 #oscars #oscarserraofficial #chrisrock #willsmith #fyp #tiktok #foryoupage
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! According to AP News, after the incident, Will was asked to be removed from the venue, to which Will refused and was then offered counsel from fellow non-slappy actors Bradley Cooper, Denzel Washington, and Tyler Perry.
Many have focused on why Smith was allowed to remain seated front row in the Dolby Theatre after the incident. On Wednesday, the academy suggested that it attempted to remove the actor from the audience.
“Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated,” the academy said. “While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently.”
And finally (because this saga never ends) Variety also reports that people close to the awards show smackdown claim that Will was not asked to leave. In fact, it was show producer, director Will Packer, who insisted Will not be ejected, even though those claims are being refuted as well.
Show producer Will Packer, sources inside the Dolby said, was the key to Smith remaining in his seat. In the roughly 30 minutes following Smith’s attack on Rock, before the award for best actor was presented, Packer walked out into the orchestra and conferred with Smith, according to two witnesses. Packer said that he and the production “officially” wanted Smith to stay for the remainder of the show, according to one of the witnesses. Another source close to Packer denied that the producer urged Smith to remain.
Annnndd……exhale. Honestly, I think the best way for everyone to move forward is to keep all of their names out of our fuckin’ mouths from now on.
Pic: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com