According to Oscars co-host Wanda Sykes, presenter Chris Rock apologized to her after the ceremony in the wake of Will Smith slapping him on stage.
During a recent appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the subject of the slap arose, and Sykes recounted running into Chris at a star-studded Oscars afterparty. “I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this … as soon as I walked up to him the first thing he said was, ‘I’m so sorry,'” Sykes recalled. “And I’m like, ‘Why are you apologizing?’ He was like, ‘It was supposed to be your night. You and [co-hosts] Amy [Schumer] and Regina [Hall], y’all were doing such a good job. I’m so sorry — this is now gonna be about this.'”
During the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony on March 27, Smith took issue with a joke Rock made about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. Smith stormed the stage and slapped Rock harshly across the face before returning to his seat and shouting at him, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” The entirety of the incident was caught on camera. While the details are still disputed, Smith was allowed to stay for the duration of the ceremony and later accepted the Oscar for Best Actor.
Sykes didn’t witness the event firsthand but described watching the footage after the fact. “It was sickening. I physically felt ill, and I’m still a little traumatized by it,” she said. “And for them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award — I was like, ‘How gross is this? This is just the wrong message. You assault somebody, you get escorted out the building and that’s it.”
Smith issued a public statement the day after the ceremony apologizing for his behavior, describing it as “unacceptable and inexcusable” and calling himself “a work in progress.” However, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences recently announced plans to start disciplinary proceedings against Smith for violating the Academy’s Standards of Conduct.
Despite the Academy’s condemnation of Smith’s actions, Sykes expressed frustration at the organization’s failure to offer the hosts an apology for how it handled Smith in the wake of the slap. “…No one has apologized to us, and we worked really hard to put that show together. So the industry itself, I’m like, ‘What the hell is this?’ It’s just wrong.”
Source: YouTube
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