The drama around "The Slap" does not seem to be going away any time soon, and as the
dust settles, it seems like Chris Rock has more to say.
Keep watching to see how Chris Rock stirs the pot with a casual Will Smith burn.
The drama between Will Smith and Chris Rock runs deep.
As fans know, the pair made headlines in late March during the Oscars.
Rock appeared onstage to present an award but cracked a few jokes before, including
one about Jada Pinkett Smith's "G.I.
Jane 2" haircut.
Post-joke, Smith stormed the stage, slapped Rock, and shouted at Rock to keep his wife's
name out of his mouth.
It was a tense moment, and Smith has been experiencing backlash over it ever since.
Though the actor took home the Oscar for his work in "King Richard," his reputation took
a big hit.
The day after the incident, Smith took to Instagram to apologize for his actions.
He wrote:
"​​I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris.
I was out of line and I was wrong.
I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be.
There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness."
Many of Smith's projects are on hold for the time being, and the Academy has launched an
investigation into the incident.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Academy plans to
"explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct
and California law."
It will be interesting to see if they strip the actor of his Oscar.
But how's Rock faring in the aftermath of this altercation?
Slowly but surely, Chris Rock is opening up about the Oscars incident with Will Smith.
During his first comedy show after the Oscars, Rock told the audience that he was still processing
what happened to him on stage, and he would talk about it once he was ready.
Rock started his set by joking about the "interesting" week he had, obviously referring to the viral
Oscars moment.
Rock also cracked another joke, as he seemed to ease into giving his side of the story.
An insider at the show revealed:
"He made a joke about how Atlantic City is too close to Philly for him to get into it.
The general vibe of the comment was that Atlantic City could be hostile territory because it's
so close to Philly.
It was said in a casual joking way and everyone laughed."
On Smith's side, things don't seem to be going as well for him.
The incident has spawned a lot of negative headlines for the actor, leaving some to wonder
if his career will ever recover.
After all, Smith has since announced his resignation from the Academy, stating that he was "heartbroken"
over what transpired.
Though Smith is certainly not the first actor to face national controversy, he is the latest
to find himself in the middle of such a divisive one.
Within hours of the incident, Twitter was overflowing with opinions from both sides
of the aisle.
There were those who thought Smith was in the right to defend his wife and those who
thought he was way out of line.
Beyond the potential of losing his Oscar, there could be other consequences.
Smith has a number of films set to begin production or to be released in 2022.
"Bad Boys 4" has already been paused indefinitely.
"No backup, put the gun down, and get me a pack of tropical fruit bubblicious."
Smith's highly anticipated "Emancipation," in which he plays a freed slave, is also up
in the air.
Sharon Waxman, editor-in-chief of The Wrap is quoted as saying,
"A big indicator of how tarnished Will Smith's reputation is when we see what Apple decides
to do with ['Emancipation'].
If they decide to push it [back], I think that'll give you some strong sense of, they
don't want to be out in the marketplace with Will Smith this year."
For his part, within days of the slap, Smith announced he would be appearing on Jada Pinkett
Smith's, talk show "Red Table Talk," to discuss the incident as a family.
And Rock will likely talk about the slap through his upcoming comedy specials.
During a Boston set, in fact, he said,
"I don't have a bunch of s–t about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I had
like a whole show I wrote before this weekend.
And I'm still kind of processing what happened, so at some point I'll talk about that s–t.
And it'll be serious and it'll be funny, but right now I'm going to tell some jokes."
We're just hoping Rock is ready to talk in time to join the Smiths on "Red Table Talk."
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