A 94th Academy Awards that steadily maintained a buoyant spirit was rocked by an unbelievable exchange after Will Smith took offense to a joke made by Chris Rock about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
The moment shocked the Dolby Theatre audience and viewers at home. At the commercial break, presenter Daniel Kaluuya came up to hug Smith, and Denzel Washington escorted him to the side of the stage. The two talked and hugged and Tyler Perry came over to talk as well. Up until that moment, the show had been running fairly smoothly. Ariana DeBose became the first Afro-Latina to win an Academy Award for supporting actress, while Troy Kotsur became the first deaf actor to win an acting award.
Sykes, Schumer and Hall breezily joked through prominent Hollywood issues like pay equity — they said three female hosts were “cheaper than one man” — the Lady Gaga drama that Sykes called “House of Random Accents,” the state of the Golden Globes and Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriends. Their most pointed political point came at the end of their routine, in which they promised a great night and then alluded to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“This is for the Deaf community, the CODA community and the disabled community,” said Kotsur, signing from the stage. “This is our moment.” To help regain the cultural spotlight, the Oscars leaned heavily on musical performances , film anniversaries and as many mentions of the “Encanto” breakout song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” as possible. That made for an often buoyant ceremony that put less focus on the pandemic. The Ukrainian-born Mila Kunis led a 30-second moment of silence for Ukraine.
This is not ok. If I was a comedian I'd be worried everytime I performed on stage. Now any one will think it's OK of Will Smith can do it.
Will Smith committed a criminal act of violence on live TV, then was given an award by people who used the show to condemn violence. But let’s not forget these are same people who turned a blind eye to Harvey Weinstein for years while at same time preaching against sexual abuse
Isn't that a crime?
Smith's wife has a medical condition called alopecia. Chris Rock likely didn't know and made a tasteless gaffe. Papa Bear got poked. Hope they sort it out.
We give these people wayyy to much $ and attention
This pandemic was so brutal...i can see people behaving mysteriously wrong without reason....sigh!!
Should of been taken out by security and charged. It was just a joke,did you see her head.
Shame on macho Will Smith. If you can’t take jokes like that you shouldn’t be in Hollywood. His wife is a public figure. An actress! So if some bad joke was about Will, should Jada have punched Chris?
Revenge for banging her
This year's Oscars will be remembered for Will Smith's inappropriate behaviour over Christ Rock's joke about his wife.
The Academy should take the Oscar back for unacceptable behaviour!