NEW YORK. The Academy ax fell on Will Smith for the live TV slap to comedian Chris Rock who had just made an unhappy joke about his wife Jade Pinkett’s shaved head. The newly awarded Oscar for King Richard – A Winning Family he will not be able to participate in the next ten editions of the ‘night of the stars’, nor in other events organized by the Academy for the same period of time. Smith, who accepted “respecting” the Board’s decision, resigned from the Academy on April 1, thus giving rise to the weapon that the 54 Governors of the highest government body in Hollywood had in their pockets to punish him for having spoiled the most important night of the year for American cinema. On the other hand, the actor will not be deprived of the Oscar he won only 12 days ago and may be nominated in the future and win other statuettes: this could happen as early as next year if the Apple studios do not parade from his next project, the thriller. on slavery “Emancipation” directed by Antoine Fuqua, which should be released in the coming months.
Board members, including such Hollywood luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Whoopy Goldberg, Laura Dern, Ava DuVernay and Rita Wilson, met in an emergency session via Zoom to decide how to punish violations of internal conduct standards enacted in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. On the eve of the meeting there were rumors of a rift among the Governors on the opportunity to revoke Smith’s award, but this path soon appeared impracticable also in light of the fact that the same measure was never taken: neither for the former boss of Miramax, sentenced to 23 years for assaults and rape, nor for the director Roman Polanski, a fugitive in France since 1978 for fear of ending up behind bars for a case of sexual assault on a minor. In ruling against Will Smith, the Academy has in turn sprinkled the head with ashes: “During the broadcast we did not deal with the situation as we should have. For this we apologize. It would have been the opportunity to give an example to our guests and our spectators, but we failed, remaining unprepared for an unprecedented fact ».