This is one of the reasons why many initially greeted him as his wife’s “protector” when he hit Rock after the comic book and actor made a joke from the Oscar stage for Jada Pinkett Smith’s closed hair. “Jada I love you, ‘GI Jane 2,’ I look forward to seeing it,” Rock said at the presentation of the Best Documentary Award. Smith then took the stage, hit Rock, returned to his seat and shouted in the comic book “Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth!” It is not clear if Rock knew Pinkett Smith suffered from alopecia, which is hair loss that can be triggered by an autoimmune response. Smith will have to be high after his win for Best Actor – which came shortly after the slap – for his role in “King Richard”. But that was overshadowed by Smith’s actions that night and could well make the studios see the possibility of working with the actor or at least delaying the scheduled works. As Scott Mendelson from Forbes pointed out, “the incident with the Oscars shattered a carefully created image of 30 years of accessible, safe and always in the gift of movie stars.” Much seems to depend on Smith’s future moves, having already publicly apologized to Rock and resigned from the Academy.
Rock has not yet given his full opinion
Three days after the controversial incident, Rock went to a different stage. During a comedy show on the “Ego Death Tour” at the Wilbur Theater in Boston, he spoke briefly about the slap. “I don’t have a lot of talk about what happened, so if you listened to it, I had a whole show I wrote before this weekend,” Rock said. “And I’m still working on what happened, so at some point I’m going to talk about this s ***. And it’s going to be serious and it’s going to be funny, but right now I’m going to say some jokes.” Many are waiting to hear Rock think not only that he was struck by Smith, but also that he knew about Pinkett Smith’s medical condition and the aftermath of what has been considered one of the most shocking moments in the history of the Oscars. Others in Rock life were more vocal. His younger brother, comedian Tony Rock, took to Twitter to answer some questions, including how his older brother “Still Rich” was doing, wrote on Twitter Tony Rock, who also asked his brother to slap him. in one of his own standup performances that has been announced. on social media.
Sanctions of the Academy
Days after the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced that it had “initiated disciplinary proceedings” against Smith.
While the actor has already resigned from the Academy, its president David Rubin said in a statement on Friday that the team “will continue to pursue our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for breaches of the Academy’s Code of Conduct before the next scheduled meeting of the Board of Directors on April 18. “
These actions could include permanent expulsion and anything else judged under the Academy’s regulations and / or standards of conduct.
CNN’s Chloe Melas and Brian Stelter contributed to this report.
