via Associated Press
OSCARS – The Academy of Oscars has decided Friday, April 8, to ban Will Smith from any ceremony or event it hosts for a period of ten years, as sanction for the slap the actor slammed comedian Chris Rock in the middle of the gala evening at the end of March.
“Mr. Smith is not permitted to attend any Academy event or program, in person or virtually,” whether it be the Oscars or not, and effective immediately, the Board of Directors of the Academy wrote. Academy in a statement. the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which met Friday morning.
The Academy accepted Will Smith’s resignation, which he tendered last week, but did not deprive him of the Best Actor Oscar he received last month. “The Williams Method”† “I accept and respect the Academy’s decision,” Will Smith said in a brief written statement.
Actions “shocking, painful and unforgivable”
The Friday morning meeting of the Academy’s board of directors, attended by stars such as Steven Spielberg and Whoopi Goldberg, was part of the disciplinary proceedings brought against the actor after his blow in the middle of the Oscars gala night.
A ceremony “overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior of Mr. Smith on stage. During our television broadcast, we did not react well to the situation. We’re sorry about that,” Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said Friday. “We would like to say a big thank you to Mr. Rock for keeping cool under these extraordinary circumstances,” they added in their statement.
Will Smith, 53, took everyone by storm and resigned himself last week. “My actions at the 94th Academy Awards were shocking, painful and unforgivable,” the actor wrote, five days after taking the stage to punch comedian Chris Rock, who had just made a joke about his cropped hair.
Will Smith, 53, took everyone by storm and resigned himself last week. “My actions at the 94th Academy Awards were shocking, painful and unforgivable,” the actor wrote, five days after taking the stage to punch comedian Chris Rock, who had just made a joke about his cropped hair.
Jada Pinkett Smith publicly said a few years ago that she…alopecia, a disease that causes severe hair loss. Tens of minutes after the blow, Will Smith returned to the Oscars stage to receive the Best Actor award for his role in “The Williams Method.”
He had shown no remorse at the time, and was content to chide ‘people who disrespect you’ and say that ‘love makes you crazy’. It wasn’t until the next day, after the Academy announced an internal investigation into the incident, that actor Chris Rock and organizers apologized. He then pleaded with having reacted “emotionally” to “a joke about Jada’s health problem”.
Chris Rock is not suing
When Will Smith finally announced his resignation last Friday, he admitted that he had “breached the trust of the Academy. I have denied other candidates and winners the opportunity to celebrate their extraordinary work.” “I will accept any consequences that the board of directors deems appropriate,” he added in his text.
There had been voices demanding that Will Smith take his Oscar, but others pointed out that neither Harvey WeinsteinFormer Hollywood tycoon convicted of rape and sexual assault, nor the director Roman Polansky were forced to return their statuettes after being expelled from the Academy.
The day after the incident, actress Whoopi Goldberg herself had considered the possibility unlikely for Will Smith. “There will be consequences, I’m sure, but I don’t think they will, especially since Chris” Rock has decided not to press charges, she said on television.
For his part, the comedian has not spoken publicly about this incident. “I’m still processing what happened. So at some point I’m going to talk about these things. And it’s going to be serious and funny,” he said at the beginning of a show on March 30.
See also on The HuffPost: At the Grammys, Will Smith’s slap was also involved
