sunday night is Will Smith Incident at the 2022 Oscars will not end quietly.
A full meeting of the Academy’s Board of Governors has been called for Wednesday night to consider whether Smith slapped the moderator Chris Rock on stage at the ceremony is expected to be the number one topic, has learned.
The decision comes just hours after the officers on the academy’s board of governors — including the president David Rubyn and CEO Dawn Hudson – called on Monday to an emergency call about the incident. Shortly thereafter, the Academy issued a statement, declaring: “The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at yesterday’s show. We have officially initiated a formal investigation into the incident and will consider further actions and consequences consistent with our bylaws, standards of conduct and California law.”
(The first board meeting after the Oscars always includes a debriefing of the ceremony and addresses issues that arose during the show but don’t typically happen so soon after the ceremony.)
A sanction from Smith is likely to come – perhaps a suspension of his Academy membership, as some members are calling for, but unlikely to be the stripping of his best actor, Oscar, as others would like to see. (Just Harvey Weinstein and Roman Polansky‘s Oscars were never annulled.)
Whoopie Goldberg, a member of the Board of Governors who is also an Oscar winner and former presenter, said Monday in The View: “We’re not going to take that Oscar away from him. I’m sure there will be consequences, but I don’t think they will.”
During Sunday night’s live broadcast, Smith responded to a joke aimed at his wife Jada Pinkett-SmithShe slapped Rock while he was on stage in one of the most shocking moments in awards show history.
The comic made a GI Jane joke about Pinkett Smith, who has a shaved head (the actress has alopecia).
When Smith returned to his seat, Rock marveled at the audience that “Will Smith just blew me away”. Once back in his seat, Smith yelled at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your damn mouth!”
When Rock said to Smith, “Wow dude, that was a GI Jane joke,” Smith repeated himself.
The swear words were censored for US audiences but shared unedited on social media. Shortly thereafter, Smith was named Best Picture winner for King Richard, and while receiving his first-ever Oscar, he apologized to the Academy and his other nominees. However, he did not mention Rock.
After the show, the academy tweeted a statement saying it “does not condone any form of violence.”
Smith and Rock each attended separate afterparties – with Smith saying it was a “beautiful night” dancing at Vanity Fair’s Oscars party; Rock has been sighted Guy Osary‘s after party. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that Rock declined to file a police report.
producer WillpackerHe called the moment on Twitter Monday “a very painful moment for me. On many levels.”