The Academy Awards

Smith should be charged with assault. It was pretty clear that Jada was very upset about that whole sequence. She has alopecia, she's very open about it, and certainly Chris Rock knows she has a condition even if you don't. Smith didn't assault free speech, he protected his wife. Caveman? Yes. But give me a fucking break. We live in a caveman country with a very paternalistic attitude toward women. I personally would have liked to see Jada get up and smack the bitch out of Chris Rock. But that didn't happen. But once again, Chris Rock was free to say that. He is not free from the consequences. Smith should be charged with assault.

 

I'm not trying to defend Rock but why do we have to be certain that he knows she has that condition? Is everyone in Hollywood supposed to be that connected? She may be open about it, but that doesn't mean it has been on his radar.

 

Exactly right. Just awful.

I don't think the Academy Awards ever took themselves all that seriously - it was always a kind of employee-of-the-month promotional stunt to put the rubes in the seats - but it became a kind of camp social justice drag show in the 1970s and remained one for a very long time. Still with the intention of selling more movie tickets, of course, and reminding us of the gulf between those with invitations to the Vanity Fair afterparty and those without.

The show was all about Hollywood's insecurities. But the world's biggest movie stars continued taking themselves seriously enough that they couldn't bear it when Letterman openly mocked them.

Now the broadcast is an expression of Hollywood's self-loathing.

 

Subset of a subset. I would stunned if he didn't know.

 

The first interesting thing that has happened at the Oscars EVER and people are upset about it? I don't get it. Usually the event has people making horses' asses of themselves in much more boring ways.

 

ABC’s GMA (network Oscar morning after news show) deciding to be real pissed.

 

One of the criticisms of celebrities is that they're so far up their own ass and insulated that they have no idea what's going on with things that have nothing to do with themselves. The audience's reaction when Rock let that line fly wasn't collective shock that he tooled on someone with alopecia. I don't think that's because it was tame compared to the earlier open marriage crack, either. They, in their bubbles, were like most of the [inexorably dwindling] viewers at home and just didn't know.

Even Rock's reaction ("It was s G.I. Jane joke!") leads me to believe that neither he or the joke writer (if applicable) were punching down on the condition.

I certainly believe Rock thinks Will and Jada are ridiculous and delights in railing on them. I also bet that has been made aware of their resulting displeasure first-hand on more than one occasion.

Smith just picked a bad time, place, and way to let Rock know he'd had enough.

 

It certainly doesn't make me change my opinion Will Smith is ridiculous.

 

The Smith/Rock fiasco might draw attention away from how bad this year’s show was (lame hosts with bad skits, strange memorial segment, odd stage set, awkward appearances by legacy stars, etc.) and might have delayed a shift to an online streaming show by a year or two.

 

Will Smith was laughing at the joke up until his wife wasn’t, then he went into bitch slap mode. And Denzel Washington then provided full
Cover. You can criticize Will for his actions, but when Denzel cones to your defense, it’s as if you’ve been blessed by the black pope or Tony Dungy.

 

Probably some guilt, too. Laughed at joke, realized wife was hurt