Much as Chris Rock didn’t hold back with his criticisms of Will Smith in Smith’s new Netflix special, Megyn Kelly didn’t hold back with her comment on him being “hurt” and “embarrassed” by Rock’s mockery of him in the special.
She commented on the matter in response to a tweet by the New York Post saying, “Will Smith ‘embarrassed, hurt’ over Chris Rock’s comments in Netflix special: report.” Kelly, in response, simply said “dude”.
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) March 9, 2023
Indeed. Who would saunter up on stage to slap someone, yell at him from the audience, and then, when the person slapped makes jokes instead of pressing charges, say something incredibly feminine and wimpy? Particularly over a comedy special, of all things? And when the woman at the center of the controversy cheated on you and told the whole world about it? “Dude” is right.
As background, a source told Entertainment Tonight that Will Smith had not watched what he characterized as Rock’s “distasteful” performance, saying “Will is embarrassed and hurt by what Chris said about him and his family in his Netflix special. He [Smith] didn’t watch it, but he had people tell him what Chris said.”
Continuing, the source added “It’s everywhere when you look online and on social media, so Will and Jada [Pinkett Smith] have seen comments about it. Will apologized to Chris and would like for Chris to let it go. Will has worked on himself and he is banned by the Oscars for 10 years. He feels like that’s enough and wants Chris to move on, so that he and everyone else can too.”
Yes, Smith probably would like for the victim of the assault “to let it go,” but mockery seems the more realistic outcome.
Rock, mocking Will Smith and joking about the slap incident in his new special, said that Smith was exercising “selective outrage” and made fun of him for his wife announcing her infidelity to the whole world.
The incident almost certainly won’t repeat itself at this year’s Oscars, as Will Smith has been banned from attending any Academy events for the next decade. The Hill, reporting on that, said:
A year after he slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage, don’t expect to see Will Smith at the Oscars this year.
The actor has been banned from any academy event for 10 years after he walked onto the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and hit Rock on live television. The slap came after Rock made a joke about Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Later in the show, Smith won best actor for his portrayal of Venus and Serena Williams’ father in “King Richard.” Traditionally, the best actor winner presents one of the major awards in the following year’s ceremony, but that will not be the case for Smith in 2023.
“The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year; however, those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage,” the academy said in a statement announcing Smith’s ban in April 2022.
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