Hollywood is a weird place. We already knew that. But last night’s Will Smith bitchslap against Chris Rock was really a new kind of weird, even for Tinseltown. And then, as if the Hollywood Gods couldn’t get enough of the madness, Smith accepted his Best Actor statuette and preached that he’s a “vessel for love.” Good Lord.
The truth of the matter is that, no matter how much Tiffany Haddish might defend you, Smith snapped and was in the wrong here. Smith was initially seen laughing at Rock’s joke, his wife wasn’t in the least bit amused, maybe she nudged him to do something about it. Their open marriage had been all over the headlines the past year, it must have been a rough year for the Smiths, and Will decided to do something about Jada’s ire towards Rock.
The fact that Rock refused to press charges makes him the better man here. However, this incident only enhances my belief that comedy has entered a really rough patch in the #MeToo climate; you can’t really make a risqué joke anymore without getting canceled, condemned or, yes, slapped. It’s madness.
The irony is that there was more drama in this one moment than all of “CODA” combined. The Oscar ceremony had already been crumbling to oblivion by then, but this one moment made sure it would forever be castigated in infamy.
The fact that the inevitable occurred soon after and Smith went up on stage to accept his Best Actor award, garnering a standing ovation to boot, made this one of the strangest Oscar moments in history. He cried, he knew what he had done, but he never apologized, nor did he even mention the slap. It was all shading. Only in Hollywood …