The Oscars took place this week in the beautiful scenes of Hollywood, although this tranquillity was soon mixed with the unmissable trepidation between actor Will Smith and Comedian Chris Rock.
During Chris’ monologue, he made a joke directed at Will’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith in direct relation to her hair loss and recent suffering with alopecia. Moments after the joke was shared, Will stood up from his seat, walked onto stage and slapped Rock across the face. Everything continued to air live, although ABC chose to remove the audio momentarily.
Although later apologising during his Best Actor acceptance speech, Smith seemed to be thrown into a world of immediate backlash from fellow celebrities online.
Director Rob Reiner shared his thoughts when mentioning that “Will Smith owes Chris Rock a huge apology. There is no excuse for what he did”. Followed by beloved Star Wars actor Mark Hamill expressing that this was in fact “the ugliest Oscars moment ever”.
However, some celebrities stood in Smiths corner as rap star Nicki Minaj shared, “You just got to witness in real time what happens in a man’s soul when he looks over to the woman he loves & sees her holding back tears from a ‘little joke’ at her expense”.
Though violence is not condoned, and Chris Rock’s joke was in poor taste, it has seemed to have left a dampener on the evening for a multitude of reasons. The question between the instinct Will’s protective behaviour verses how it was handled has divided the nation.
Original Source: Music Week