If you thought the whole slap incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock was over, think again because we’ll be talking about this for a few more weeks.
There were several contradicting sources of information about what truly happened right after the moment that became the most viral video of the year and maybe even the decade. First, the Academy falsely reported that they requested Will Smith to leave the Dolby Theatre and he refused but many news outlets debunked that account.
For starters, Rock cracked a joke backstage right after the event happened while still wrapping his head around what he just experienced: “I just got punched by Muhammad Ali and didn’t get a scratch,” he quipped.
For those who witnessed the drama both onstage and behind the scenes at the Oscars, the recollections of exactly what followed The Slap have often been discordant and even contradictory. https://t.co/kvGNE11BEv
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 7, 2022
The Academy was a mess after The Slap.
We all know the account of the police asking Rock if he wanted to press charges and the comedian refusing. We had no idea he hugged Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs right after the rapper attempted to elevate the room’s morale with some jokes by request of Wanda Sykes, who was horrified after someone showed her the video. Minutes after it all happened and no charges pressed, it was The Academy’s turn to step up and do something.
CEO Dawn Hudson and president David Rubin were furious, they ran backstage to check on Rock and then got inside a room for a rpivate meeting with an Academy lawyer and Smith’s publicist: Meredith O’Sullivan.
“There are like five people who truly know what happened that night. And in those pressured moments, things certainly could have been misconstrued on all sides.”
Here’s what really happened after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscarshttps://t.co/kvGNE0K0MX
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 7, 2022
The publicist waled over to Smith during the long break and told him they wanted him to leave but Will told her that he wanted to apologize. O’Sullivan played a role as an emisary from that moment forward, she went back to the Academy’s leadership to tell them Smith was gathering himself and needed a minute. They took this as an indication that Will was about to leave.
But then all hell broke loose when producer Will Packer went rogue and rushed to Smith and his publicist to tell them : Officially, we don’t want you to leave. We want you to stay.”
The reason behind this decision from Packer had more to do with keeping the show going. Reportedly, the LA Times wrote that Packer lied about Chris Rock allegedly telling him that Smith could stay. We all know what happened next, that surreal acceptance speech will go down in history for the missing apology to Rock himself. What a mess this turned out to be, but the memes will never disappoint.
NEW: Who asked Will Smith to leave? Why did he refuse? What did Chris Rock do backstage?
The Times spoke to more than a dozen people who were at the Oscars, or had direct knowledge of what transpired, to piece together what really happened that night.https://t.co/kvGNE11BEv
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 7, 2022
