This year’s Oscars featured shocks, sighs and surprises – but all anyone will care about is a slap. The Academy Awards took place on Sunday night, with films including The Power of the Dog, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza and Coda battling it out in the big categories.
The biggest story of the night had almost nothing to do with the awards: a shocking altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock sparked by a joke about Smith’s wife Jada. Smith walked up onto the stage and appeared to smack Rock in the face, before shouting at him to not refer to his wife again.
It undoubtedly overshadowed the night as a whole, and notably – just minutes later – Smith’s win of the Best Actor Oscar for King Richard. Through tears, Smith called himself “a vessel of love” and apologised to the Academy. The LAPD confirmed that Rock is not pressing charges. The Academy said it “does not condone violence of any form” and launched a “formal review” into what happened. Hours later, Smith apologised to Rock and said he was “embarrassed”.
Smith was also reportedly asked to leave the Oscars after breaking the Academy’s code of conduct, but he refused.
Following the on-stage incident, celebrities including Alec Baldwin and Adam Sandler have spoken out in support of Rock, whose forthcoming comedy tour has since experienced a huge surge of interest.
On Wednesday, during the sold-out Boston show of his Ego Death tour, Rock finally addressed the altercation between him and Smith.
You can follow all the developments about the “slap that was heard around the world” in our live blog below...
