Newsman: The Academy now says it will investigate on its own the incident of Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage at the Academy Awards.’ Academy released a statement Monday afternoon: “The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show. We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.”
This goes one step further than what the Academy said just after Sunday night’s show, which was basically that it didn’t condone violence.
Actor Chris Rock declined to file a police report Sunday after Will Smith slapped him onstage at the Academy Awards, Los Angeles police appeared to confirm. Smith’s slap was assault and battery under California law.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that it was “aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program.”.
“The incident involved one individual slapping another,” the LAPD said. “The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report
The moment that shocked Hollywood and millions of viewers came after Rock made a joke about a “G.I. Jane” sequel, referencing Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head. (Actress Demi Moore appeared in the 1997 movie with a shaved head.)
Smith appeared to laugh at first, before walking up to the stage, slapping Rock, returning to his seat and yelling, “Keep my wife’s name out of your (expletive) mouth.”
Pinkett Smith was seen rolling her eyes after Rock’s joke at the awards show.
In 2018, she confirmed that she was diagnosed with alopecia, an autoimmune skin disease that can cause hair loss on the scalp and on other parts of the body.
After the incident, Smith accepted the award for best actor for his performance as Venus and Serena Williams’ father in “King Richard,” saying: “I know to do what we do, you’ve got to be able to take abuse; you’ve got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business you’ve got to be able to have people disrespecting you. And you got to smile, and you’ve got to pretend like that’s OK.”
“I want to apologize to the Academy, I want to apologize to my fellow nominees. … 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 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released a statement on Twitter Sunday night saying it “does not condone violence of any form.”
