Recently, the annual Academy Awards ceremony took place, and many of our favorite stars were there - either for their own nomination or to support their VIP friends. But the wins were not the most memorable thing that happened that night. Instead? It was the slap heard around the world. Here's the scoop on what went down between Will Smith and Chris Rock.
While up on stage presenting the best documentary award in front of a huge crowd and thousands of viewers from home, comedian Chris Rock made a joke (as a comedian does) about Jada Smith. "Jada, I love you, 'G.I. Jane 2,' can't wait to see it," he teased about the actress's shaved head. Recently, she has opened up about having alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss. While Rock thought it "was a nice" joke, Jada didn't think it was that funny because she very openly rolled her eyes. Her reaction prompted her husband, Will Smith, to take action.
Will stood up from his seat and marched right up on stage to come face to face with Rock. And out of nowhere, he slapped the comedian across the face. Yup, that's right, it was not staged nor scripted, that was Will's real true reaction to someone poking fun at his wife! But if that wasn't enough to leave audiences with their jaw on the floor, Will continued to take action and yelled at Rock, "Keep my wife's name out of your ****ing mouth!" It's safe to say that tensions were high - and we could all feel the awkwardness through the screen.
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Clearly stunned by what had just occurred, Rock reacted, saying, "Oh, wow," which was the only thing that could be heard since the crowd instantly went silent. "That was the greatest night in the history of television." Not even 20 minutes later, Will was brought back up on stage to accept his award for best actor for his performance as Richard Williams in King Richard. He formerly apologized to the Oscar Academy and the other nominees, but not directly to Rock. He explained, "I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse and have people talk people about you. In this business, you gotta have people disrespecting you. And you gotta smile and pretend that's ok." Since it was a physical altercation, the LAPD had to get involved. But according to them, Rock said he wouldn't press any charges. And while Smith has since taken to Instagram to address the altercation, we have a feeling this one will go down in the history books. Stay tuned while this story develops.
