Oscars Producer Says He told Academy Not to Boot Will Smith Because ‘Chris Rock Doesn’t Want That’

return his award for best actor.Veteran screen and stage actor Harry Lennix compared Smith’s penalty for smacking Chris Rock over a joke “an extended time out for a playground bully” that “lays bare the shallowness of Hollywood morals” in a scathing Variety op-ed Saturday.Lennix, a prolific character actor best known for his role in “The Five Heartbeats,” said it was “galling” for Smith to have been allowed to accept his “King Richard” Oscar and refer to the “will of God” in his speech.“Smith’s brutality stripped the entire evening of its prestige,” Lennix, 57, wrote. “That was proven when stunned Oscar attendees gave a standing ovation to someone who’d just committed an assault in front of their eyes.”Rock had cracked a bald joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia.

Tonight on Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update’s anchors tackled topics ranging from Barack Obama’s joke at President Biden’s expense, to Will Smith’s resignation from the Film Academy and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Grammys speech.

Variety comes just a day after the Academy announced a 10-year ban of the “King Richard” star from the Oscars, which Lennix likened to a “little more than an extended time out for a playground bully,” calling it a “toothless penalty that lays bare the shallowness of Hollywood morals.” The Academy’s decision does not preclude Smith, who earlier resigned from the Academy, from receiving nominations or awards during that decade, but only bans him from attending them.“Smith needs to express-mail his golden trophy back to the Academy and publicly state something to the effect of: ‘Out of respect for the 94 years of honor conferred upon this award, I do not in good conscience feel worthy of being its custodian,’” Lennix wrote, adding that only the actor can “redeem” the show’s integrity. Lennix also ripped Smith’s acceptance speech later that evening, saying, “This attempt to explain his actions added to the travesty of this ethical catastrophe. In couching his acceptance speech as somehow submitting to the will of God, Smith abdicated personal accountability.”“The Blacklist” actor further went on to say that Smith’s “brutality stripped the entire evening of its prestige,” adding that his actions created an “existential crisis” for the awards show.

White Stripes' singer Jack White shocked fans on Friday night when he proposed to and married his girlfriend on stage during a show. White invited Olivia Jean, a songwriter and producer, on stage to play with the band during the gig, introducing her to fans as his girlfriend.

It appears that Chris Rock will only open up about getting slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars if he’s compensated for it.

Don’t expect Chris Rock to talk about the controversial Oscars slap anymore until he gets one thing — some cash in his pocket!

Chris Rock, 57, has feelings about Will Smith slapping him after a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith‘s saved head at the Oscars, but he’s not going public with them until he gets money for it. The comedian had a comedy show in Indio, CA on April 8, and told the audience he’s doing “OK” after the headline-making incident, which caused Will to be banned from attending the Academy Awards for 10 years, but he won’t talk about it until he gets “paid,” according to the Palm Desert Sun.

Jon Hamm and his girlfriend Anna Osceola are enjoying some quality time together!

Jada Pinkett Smith's alopecia during the Academy Awards ceremony on March 28. Her husband, Will Smith, was banned from the Academy for 10 years on Friday, April 8, for hitting Rock in response. Alopecia is an autoimmune condition that causes hair loss.

Will Smith has responded to his 10-year ban from the Oscars. Yesterday, the Academy revealed dramatic consequences for the actor, who slapped Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles on March 27. It was revealed while he is allowed to keep the Oscar he won on the night, he will be banned from attending any Academy events for the next decade.

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 94th Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided that the Best Actor winner, will be banned for 10 years. Meaning it will be a decade until the actor can attend the most prestigious award show in Hollywood.Will Smith apologizes to Chris Rock after getting violent at the Oscars: 'I am embarrassed'On Friday, the Academy committee met virtually to discuss possible sanctions for the actor.

Harry Lennix The Motion Picture Academy’s decision to ban Will Smith from Oscar ceremonies and events for 10 years as discipline for slapping Chris Rock is little more than an extended time out for a playground bully. It’s a toothless penalty that lays bare the shallowness of Hollywood morals.At this point, the only person who can redeem the integrity of the Oscars is Smith himself.

Leave it to comedian Ricky Gervais to have the last laugh in the generally unfunny Will Smith saga.

WILL Smith has been banned from the Oscars for ten years after he shocked the world by slapping Chris Rock during the live telecast. The A-lister has kept a low-profile following the moment which instantly went viral. According to TMZ, the Academy's Board of Governors met Friday and after the vote the Academy President and CEO revealed their decision.

Will Smith from all Academy events, including the Oscars, for 10 years.Last month, the actor struck Chris Rock on-stage during the Oscars ceremony following a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. Following numerous apologies over the incident, Smith resigned from the Academy and described his actions as “shocking, painful, and inexcusable”.In a new statement, the Academy reflected on Smith’s behaviour, praised Rock’s “composure”, and called for “a time of healing and restoration for all involved and impacted” (per Variety).

The Mirror reports. Smith had won the Best Actor prize for his leading role in King Richard, taking to the stage to accept it not long after he had slapped Rock, who had joked that he couldn't wait to see Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith in GI Jane 2, referencing how Demi Moore famously shaved her head for the role. Jada had previously spoken of developing alopecia and deciding to shave her hair off after it started to fall out.

Will Smith has been banned by the Academy from the Oscars for the next 10 years after slapping Chris Rock at last month’s ceremony. However, it has been revealed that Smith can still be nominated for the prestigious honour, but would not be able to pick up the award in person – or virtually – if he were to win another Oscar. Smith, who won his first Oscar this year for Best Actor for his performance in King Richard, can still be nominated for future Academy Awards, reports The Washington Post.

Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year," Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President David Rubin and Chief Executive Dawn Hudson said in a statement. "However, those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage.

Jada Pinkett Smith's underwhelmed reaction to a surprise birthday party Will Smith planned for three years has divided the internet. As soon as her 37th birthday was over, Will took it upon himself to plan and thrown an extravagant party for her 40th. Things didn't go down as Will expected– in fact, her reaction was not ideal that it made Will hit a "low point.

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Bill Maher used a pointer to illustrate his lecture Friday night on HBO’s Real Time, as he gave a “Zapruder-ized” analysis of the Oscars moment that everyone can’t let go.

Will Smith was banned from attending the Oscars and any other Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences event for the next decade, the academy announced Friday following a meeting to address Smith's slap of Chris Rock during the 94th Academy Awards last month. Smith slapped Rock after the presenter made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head, referring to the 1997 film "G.I.

Jada Pinkett Smith showed support for her daughter Willow Smith's latest music as her husband Will Smith found out his Oscars fate from the Academy. On Friday, Pinkett Smith took to her Instagram Stories to plug Willow's music video for her song "Psychofreak" with Camila Cabello. The song is off of Cabello's latest album, "Familia."   "WILLOW x Camila Cabello = psychofreak video out now," text over a photo of Willow and Cabello read along with a link to watch the music video.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Board of Governors met this morning to discuss potential consequences for Will Smith after he slapped Chris Rock on the Oscars stage last month. They voted to ban Smith from all Academy events, including the Oscars, for the next 10 years.

New York Times that while there has been no official statement about whether or not Smith will be eligible for Oscar nominations, insiders told the Times that he will be.  The Academy moved swiftly and decisively to create consequences for Smith's wrongdoing. It took less than two weeks to investigate and institute a punishment.

the academy finally levied disciplinary action against the 53-year-old actor, who interrupted last month’s Oscars ceremony to slap presenter Chris Rock in the face during their live telecast over a joke the comedian made about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The “King Richard” actor, who later that night took home the Best Actor award for his role in the film, is now banished from all academy events for a period of 10 years, the organization said in a statement.Smith has now responded to their decision: “I accept and respect the Academy’s decision,” he said, according to CNN journalist Brian Stelter, who shared the comment on Twitter.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors has “decided, for a period of 10 years from April 8, 2022, Mr.

violently assaulting comedian Chris Rock onstage in front of millions of viewers after Rock made a crack about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, the 53-year-old actor was banned from the next 10 years of Academy Awards ceremonies.We should all be so lucky!Smith, who treated a glamorous primetime telecast like 2 a.m. at a roadside bar in Wichita, egregiously gets to keep the shiny Best Actor statuette he won for “King Richard,” now surely nestled on the shelf next to his 10 hard-won Kids’ Choice Awards. No criminal charges have been filed against the actor for storming up to another man, slapping him so hard it made a noise in a 3,400-seat theater and then yelling, “Get my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth!” on live TV.And, if its current inaction is any indication, the FCC will let him be.Imagine how difficult this situation must be for this poor A-lister.

Immediately after the Academy of Motion Pictures’ decision to ban Will Smith from attending the Oscars and all Academy events for the next ten years, the actor has come forward with his thoughts.

Will Smith, 53, issued a short and simple statement following the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision to ban him from all Academy-related events (including the Oscars) for the next 10 years, because he ran onstage and slapped Chris Rock, 57, during the 2022 Academy Awards. “I accept and respect the Academy’s decision,” he said in a very short statement on Friday April 8 to Page Six. 

infamous Oscars smack-down of Chris Rock and the Academy’s decision Friday to ban him from the ceremony for 10 years — admitted to “crying down the freaking aisle” before tying the knot with the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star on New Year’s Eve in 1997. “I was under so much pressure, you know, being a young actress, being young, and I was just, like, pregnant and I just didn’t know what to do,” declared Pinkett Smith, 50, in a freshly exhumed snippet from her “Red Table Talk” Facebook series. “I never wanted to be married.”In the clip from 2018 — which has resurfaced amid renewed controversy around her louche “entanglement” with R&B singer August Alsina, 29 — Pinkett Smith candidly recalls her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, also known as “Gammy,” 68, forcing her and Smith to wed after she became pregnant with their first son together, Jaden, now 23.  “I really didn’t wanna get married,” Pinkett Smith restated while seated around the circular table with her mom, as well as Smith, 53, and their daughter Willow, 21. “We only got married because Gammy was crying,” a chuckling Smith informed Willow. “It was almost as if Gammy was like, ‘You have to get married, so let’s talk about the wedding,’” said Pinkett Smith, prompting Banfield-Norris to confess, “I remember feeling very strongly and wanting you guys to be married.”The “Girls Trip” star’s mother was just 18 when she became pregnant with Pinkett Smith, and briefly married her father, Robsol Pinkett Jr. “I do remember [wanting you and Will to get married] but I don’t remember your rejection of the idea of marriage,” Banfield-Norris added.