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Will Smith slaps Chris Rock on the Oscars 2022 stage

At the Oscars, Will Smith struck Chris Rock in the face after the comedian made a joke about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Chris Rock had cracked a joke comparing Jada Pinkett Smith’s sharply cropped hair to Demi Moore’s appearance in the film “G.I. Jane” and recommending she star in a sequel when presenting the best documentary prize with a short comedy performance.

Smith rushed up to Rock and smacked him before returning to his seat with Jada and shouted profanities, eliciting awkward stillness and uncertainty in the Dolby Theatre.

“Can’t wait for GI Jane 2,” he said, referring to her shaved hairstyle, which is the result of the hair loss condition alopecia.

After Rock’s joke, Pinkett Smith rolled her eyes. As Smith moved to the stage and hit Chris Rock, the Oscars coverage went silent for a brief moment. The entire event was broadcast on television in Japan and other countries. “Will Smith just knocked the sh-t out of me,” a speechless Rock added.

“Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth,” Smith said as he walked on stage and struck Rock. On stage, he later apologised.

“I want to apologise to the Academy. I want to apologise to all my fellow nominees,” he stated as he accepted the award for best actor in a sad acceptance speech.

The actor won his first Academy Award for his role as the father of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams in King Richard. “Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.”

The incident put the Dolby Theater into a state of shock and sparked a Twitter fury.  “Will and Chris, we’re going to solve this like family at the Gold Party.”  P Diddy said a few minutes later, attempting to alleviate the situation.

It’s not the first time Rock has made a joke at the Oscars about the couple’s relationship. When Rock presented the Oscars in 2016, he mentioned the couple in the context of Pinkett Smith’s #OscarsSoWhite boycott. “Is Jada going to skip the Oscars?” Jada’s boycott of the Oscars is akin to my boycott of Rihanna’s underwear. He exclaimed, “I wasn’t invited!”

On an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1995, Rock played Smith’s character’s date for the evening. On David Letterman’s The Late Show in 2011, Rock performed a skit on Smith, ostensibly complaining about the success of Smith’s daughters, Jaden and Willow Smith. “The guy’s already taking parts from me. Now, his kids are taking parts from my kids. Will Smith, don’t you have enough?” he told Letterman.

The cursing was not heard by viewers at home. To avoid disturbing viewers at home, broadcast network ABC cut the live feed.

The victors’ room was deafeningly quiet throughout the altercation. The Academy’s personnel were just as surprised as the media. “I thought they were doing something,” one said to another.

In an episode of her Facebook chat show, Red Table Talk, Pinkett Smith first discussed her hair loss battle in 2018. She said: “I’ve been having issues with hair loss. And it was terrifying when it first started.”

After “handfuls of hair” fell loose in the shower, the Girls Trip star believed she had alopecia.

“‘Oh my God, am I becoming bald?’ I was thinking. It was one of those moments in my life when I was physically shaking from anxiety “she clarified “That’s why I’ve been cutting my hair and will continue to do so.”

During a commercial break, an emotional Smith needed to be “taken away and comforted” by Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry, according to Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter.

Some observers questioned whether the whole thing was staged.

Jessica Chastain, who won best actress for The Eyes of Tammy Faye; Jane Campion, who won best director for The Power of the Dog; and Apple TV film Coda, which won best picture, were among the other winners at Sunday’s gala.

Ariana DeBose won best supporting actress for West Side Story, and Troy Kotsur won best supporting actor for Coda, which also received best adapted screenplay.

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