The Board decided that for ten years starting April 8, Will Smith will not be allowed to participate in any Academy-sponsored awards or events, either physical or digital, including the Academy Awards.
Here’s what Oscar co-chairs David Rubin and Don Hudson said in a statement Limit.
During this year’s awards show, which took place about two weeks ago, star Will Smith took to the stage and chatted with Chris Rock after a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
The academy described the incident as “unacceptable and harmful behaviour”.
In another statement CNN Smith says the following:
I accept and respect the decision of the Academy.
Sorry they didn’t interfere
The fight on stage shocked the entire world, and people wondered if it was a planned show, or if it was a real reaction to the joke.
But speculation erupted when Smith apologized to Chris Rock.
Last weekend, a week after the awards ceremony, Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The reason was as follows:
“I want to focus on those who deserve attention for their achievements and leave the Academy back to the wonderful work it is doing to support creativity and art in cinema,” he said in the statement.
He also said he would “accept any other consequences the council deems appropriate.”
The academy’s board of directors also apologized in a statement on Friday. They regret the way they handled the situation by allowing Smith to continue with the action and get the statuette for Best Male Actor.
– During the distribution, we did not adequately address the situation. We apologize for that. The board says and continues:
– This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and other Academy events around the world. We failed – unprepared for the unexpected.
Wife joke
When Chris Rock was on stage during the Academy Awards, he joked about Jada Bankett Smith and said he’d like to see a sequel to J.I. Jane.
In the 1997 movie, Demi Moore played a skinny soldier. In 2018, Pinkett Smith was diagnosed with alopecia areata, a skin condition that causes hair to stop growing and fall out.
Jada Pinkett Smith has been open about the disease hoping it will also help others in the same situation.
But the joke made Will Smith look red.
After defeating Chris Rock on stage, Smith received the award for Best Male Actor for “King Richard”.
Rock, who was in the process of submitting an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, declined to report the matter to the police.
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