The Producer Of The Oscars Says That The LAPD Was Prepared To Arrest Will Smith After The Slap, But Chris Rock Declined To Press Charges

April 1, 2022 / Posted by:

Well here’s a new, even more dramatic layer to The Slap, aka what Will Smith did to Chris Rock’s joke-telling mouth at Sunday night’s Academy Awards. According to Will Packer, producer of this year’s Oscars ceremony, the situation with Will and Chris could have turned into a special live episode of Law & Order: Celebrity Crime Unit. Will Packer says that after Will hit Chris in the face, the LAPD was ready to do some slapping of their own. Slapping handcuffs on Will Smith, that is. But an extra-messy police altercation was avoided, allegedly because of Chris Rock deciding he didn’t want to go down that road.

Not too long after Chris Rock told the world’s most regrettable G.I. Jane joke while presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature, and Will Smith did what he did while demanding Chris forever keep Jada Pinkett Smith’s name out of his “fucking mouth,” talk started about whether Will might catch an assault charge (or if you’re Judd Apatow, an attempted manslaughter charge). But that was quickly blown away in a cloud of smoke when several sources claimed that Chris Rock was not interested in filing a police report. Will Packer recently revealed during an interview with Good Morning America that after the situation unfolded, he was met in his office by members of the Los Angeles Police Department, as well as Chris Rock. Will Packer claims that the LAPD encouraged Chris Rock to hold Will Smith accountable for Will’s second most notable audience-witnessed crime (the first being Wild Wild West). via Deadline:

“They were saying, ‘This is battery.’ That was the word they used in that moment,” Packer told GMA‘s T.J. Holmes. “They said, ‘We will go get him. We are prepared. We will go get him right now. You can press charges. We can arrest him. They were laying out the options. And as they were talking, Chris was, he was being very dismissive of those options. He was like, ‘No, I’m fine. He was like no, no, no. And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish.’ The LAPD officers finish laying out what his options were. And they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action?’ And he said no.”

Will Packer also claimed during his interview with GMA that Chris Rock did not want Will Smith removed from the theater, but sources tell TMZ that’s not true. It’s true that Chris Rock didn’t want to file a police report, but sources say he was never asked if he wanted Will booted from the building.

Packer said it was Chris who said he did not want Will removed from the Dolby theater. Sources connected to Chris tell TMZ … that was NEVER said. As one source put it, “Chris told Packer ‘I’m not pressing charges. All I want to do is leave.’ He was never asked if he wanted Will removed. This is the Academy covering itself.” An Academy source tells TMZ, “Will Packer is not speaking on behalf of the Academy.”

That’s the latest in the conflicting reports about The Slap. Will Packer recently denied reports that Will Smith was told to leave the ceremony after the slap (which sources claimed that Will Smith vehemently denied he would do). Will Packer says he and his production team encouraged Will to stay for the remainder of the night, which Will did. And then there’s incorrect reports from people like Diddy that Will and Chris made up after the ceremony. I’m sure we’ll finally get to the bottom of all this when Ryan Murphy finally buys the rights and makes American Showbiz Story: Chris Rock vs. Will Smith’s Right Hook.

But if Will Packer is telling the full truth about what went down in his office after the slap, then Will Smith might feel a little differently about Chris Rock today. I said a little! Not a lot. The man probably still hates Chris Rock hard, but he might hate Chris just a little less, knowing that it sounded like Chris was the rock that came between Will and several LAPD officers who, quite frankly, sounded like they really wanted to arrest someone on Oscar night. Honestly, they should have gone after whoever designed that bootleg flea market James Bond opening credits sequence-looking set, but I’m almost positive you can’t arrest someone for tackiness and bad taste.

Pic: INSTAR

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