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Tag: Chris Rock

  • Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister slams Chris Rock over joke about her murder

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Tanya Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, voiced outrage at Chris Rock’s latest joke about her sister’s brutal murder.

    According to Fox News, the 57-year-old comic allegedly said during Rock’s Sunday night performance in Phoenix that asking Simpson to “go back to the restaurant” where she left her eyeglasses before she was slain would be like asking him to attend the Academy Awards following the notorious Will Smith slap incident.

    “Nothing funny about his joke towards Jada as she suffers from a physical condition and nothing funny about equating an Oscar host invitation to a double homicide,” Tanya wrote on Instagram.

    “I always thought he was funny, but he crossed the line with this one,” the motivational speaker and life coach added.

    “In other words, Y’all!!!! Stop using my sister, OJ and Ron as part of your cricking comedy act. There are families behind this tragedy!” she said of Rock drawing a parallel between the slap and Brown and Ron Goldman’s gruesome double homicide.

    According to Fox News, during his stand-up routine, Rock informed the audience that he had turned down the opportunity to host the 2023 Oscars after Will Smith slapped him onstage during the 2022 event because of a joke the comic had made about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

    ALSO READ | Will Smith posts an apology video for slapping Chris Rock

    Smith’s hair inspired a “G.I. Jane” joke from Rock. The actor from “The Nutty Professor” has alopecia, an autoimmune condition that results in hair loss.

    At her Brentwood, California, home, Brown and her companion, Goldman were discovered dead from knife wounds in June 1997. O.J. Simpson, Brown’s spouse and a former NFL star, was accused of the double homicide but was ultimately found not guilty after a highly publicised trial.

    “I don’t advocate violence but I guess this guy hasn’t learned his lesson,” he wrote. “I guess Will failed to slap any sense into him.”

    “I know some people who are deeply hurt and offended by this joke. Lame as it is. I mean he has every right to say what he said but maybe if some of his jokes were more general in nature and not so specific as to mock specific people,” Darden’s post continues.

    ALSO READ | Amber Heard’s sister calls MTV disgusting over Johnny Depp’s appearance

    “Nicole was somebody’s mother bruh and Ron was a son and a brother, you know? Do you always have to make a joke at somebody else’s expense?”

    Darden added, “Ain’t you learned nothing from the slap that was heard around the world?”

    Rock’s murder joke provoked a lot of discussion on social media. Christopher Darden, one of the trial’s prosecutors, chimed in on a post he uploaded to his personal Instagram account, according to an Entertainment Tonight article.

    WASHINGTON: Tanya Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, voiced outrage at Chris Rock’s latest joke about her sister’s brutal murder.

    According to Fox News, the 57-year-old comic allegedly said during Rock’s Sunday night performance in Phoenix that asking Simpson to “go back to the restaurant” where she left her eyeglasses before she was slain would be like asking him to attend the Academy Awards following the notorious Will Smith slap incident.

    “Nothing funny about his joke towards Jada as she suffers from a physical condition and nothing funny about equating an Oscar host invitation to a double homicide,” Tanya wrote on Instagram.

    “I always thought he was funny, but he crossed the line with this one,” the motivational speaker and life coach added.

    “In other words, Y’all!!!! Stop using my sister, OJ and Ron as part of your cricking comedy act. There are families behind this tragedy!” she said of Rock drawing a parallel between the slap and Brown and Ron Goldman’s gruesome double homicide.

    According to Fox News, during his stand-up routine, Rock informed the audience that he had turned down the opportunity to host the 2023 Oscars after Will Smith slapped him onstage during the 2022 event because of a joke the comic had made about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

    ALSO READ | Will Smith posts an apology video for slapping Chris Rock

    Smith’s hair inspired a “G.I. Jane” joke from Rock. The actor from “The Nutty Professor” has alopecia, an autoimmune condition that results in hair loss.

    At her Brentwood, California, home, Brown and her companion, Goldman were discovered dead from knife wounds in June 1997. O.J. Simpson, Brown’s spouse and a former NFL star, was accused of the double homicide but was ultimately found not guilty after a highly publicised trial.

    “I don’t advocate violence but I guess this guy hasn’t learned his lesson,” he wrote. “I guess Will failed to slap any sense into him.”

    “I know some people who are deeply hurt and offended by this joke. Lame as it is. I mean he has every right to say what he said but maybe if some of his jokes were more general in nature and not so specific as to mock specific people,” Darden’s post continues.

    ALSO READ | Amber Heard’s sister calls MTV disgusting over Johnny Depp’s appearance

    “Nicole was somebody’s mother bruh and Ron was a son and a brother, you know? Do you always have to make a joke at somebody else’s expense?”

    Darden added, “Ain’t you learned nothing from the slap that was heard around the world?”

    Rock’s murder joke provoked a lot of discussion on social media. Christopher Darden, one of the trial’s prosecutors, chimed in on a post he uploaded to his personal Instagram account, according to an Entertainment Tonight article.

  • Chris Rock declines offer to host 2023 Oscars after Will Smith slap: Reports

    Chris also stated he also turned down the opportunity to appear in a Super Bowl ad following the slapping incident.

  • Willow Smith on dad Will’s Oscars slap: ‘I see my family as being human’

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Pop star Willow Smith has broken her silence on her father Will Smith’s infamous Oscars slap. In a new interview, the 21-year-old singer shared why the awkward confrontation between her father and Chris Rock didn’t disrupt her, reports aceshowbiz.com.Willow said it is part of “humanness” to make errors after the 53-year-old actor stormed the stage of this year’s Academy Awards to whack the 57-year-old stand-up comic for making a joke about his wife’s haircut.She told Billboard in an interview “I see my whole family as being human, and I love and accept them for all their humanness.” “Because of the position that we’re in, our humanness sometimes isn’t accepted, and we’re expected to act in a way that isn’t conducive to a healthy human life and isn’t conducive to being honest,” she added.Chris made a gag about 50-year-old alopecia-sufferer Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head, comparing it to ‘G.I. Jane’ buzzcut.Willow said the spotlight thrust on her family in the wake of her father’s slap did not impact her as much as her “own internal demons.” Her remarks come a week after her father took to social media to issue yet another apology for his “unacceptable” behaviour.

    ALSO READ | Chris Rock on Will Smith slap at Oscars 2022: I’m not a victimWill said in a video, “Disappointing people is my central trauma. I hate when I let people down, so it hurts psychologically and emotionally to know that I didn’t live up to people’s image and impression of me.””The work I’m trying to do is I am deeply remorseful, and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself. I will say to you, Chris, I apologise to you. My behaviour was unacceptable, and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”Chris has made it clear he is not ready to sit down with ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ actor. He’s only briefly addressed the scandal during some of his comedy shows. An insider told Page Six last month that Will’s latest apology was “too little, too late.”

    LOS ANGELES: Pop star Willow Smith has broken her silence on her father Will Smith’s infamous Oscars slap. In a new interview, the 21-year-old singer shared why the awkward confrontation between her father and Chris Rock didn’t disrupt her, reports aceshowbiz.com.
    Willow said it is part of “humanness” to make errors after the 53-year-old actor stormed the stage of this year’s Academy Awards to whack the 57-year-old stand-up comic for making a joke about his wife’s haircut.
    She told Billboard in an interview “I see my whole family as being human, and I love and accept them for all their humanness.” “Because of the position that we’re in, our humanness sometimes isn’t accepted, and we’re expected to act in a way that isn’t conducive to a healthy human life and isn’t conducive to being honest,” she added.
    Chris made a gag about 50-year-old alopecia-sufferer Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head, comparing it to ‘G.I. Jane’ buzzcut.
    Willow said the spotlight thrust on her family in the wake of her father’s slap did not impact her as much as her “own internal demons.” Her remarks come a week after her father took to social media to issue yet another apology for his “unacceptable” behaviour.

    ALSO READ | Chris Rock on Will Smith slap at Oscars 2022: I’m not a victim
    Will said in a video, “Disappointing people is my central trauma. I hate when I let people down, so it hurts psychologically and emotionally to know that I didn’t live up to people’s image and impression of me.”
    “The work I’m trying to do is I am deeply remorseful, and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself. I will say to you, Chris, I apologise to you. My behaviour was unacceptable, and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”
    Chris has made it clear he is not ready to sit down with ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ actor. He’s only briefly addressed the scandal during some of his comedy shows. An insider told Page Six last month that Will’s latest apology was “too little, too late.”

  • Will Smith posts an apology video for slapping Chris Rock

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK: Will Smith has again apologized to Chris Rock for slapping him during the Oscar telecast in a new video, saying that his behaviour was “unacceptable” and that he had reached out to the comedian to discuss the incident but was told Rock wasn’t ready.

    “There is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment,” Smith said in the under-six minute video posted online Friday. “I am deeply remorseful and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself.” To Rock, he said: “I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”

    Smith, seated in a polo shirt and white ball cap, spoke directly to a camera, answering pre-selected questions about his behaviour at the March 27 Academy Awards, when he slapped presenter Rock after the comedian made a reference about the hairstyle of Jada Pinkett Smith, Smith’s wife.

    Smith also apologized to Rock’s family and especially his mother, Rosalie, who was horrified to see her son hurt and told US Weekly that, “When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us. He really slapped me.” Smith also apologized to Tony Rock, Chris’ younger brother.

    “I didn’t realize how many people got hurt in that moment,” Smith said.

    Neither the apology or timing impressed crisis and PR expert Eric Schiffer, who called it “bizarre, strange and grossly over-rehearsed.”

    “It came across like he was doing a confessional in some closed room in a foreign country in order to escape the regime,” said Schiffer, chairman and CEO of Patriarch Equity and chairman of Reputation Management Consultants. “It’s just not the way to get out of the septic muck he put himself into because, once again, it started being about him and it’s still about him.”

    In the video, Smith also apologized to his family “for the heat that I brought on all of us” and his fellow Oscar nominees to have “stolen and tarnished your moment.” He mentioned Questlove by name; it was the musician-director’s documentary win for “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” that was interrupted by the slap. Rock was on stage to present the documentary award.

    Smith also said his wife did nothing to encourage his slap. “Jada had nothing to do with it,” he said. “I made a choice on my own.” Pinkett Smith has said that she has alopecia areata, a hair-loss disorder.

    Following the altercation, the motion picture academy banned Smith from attending the Oscars or any other academy event for 10 years. Smith apologized to Rock in a statement after the Oscars, saying he was “out of line and I was wrong.”

    “I’m sorry really isn’t sufficient,” Smith said in the video, adding that he is hurting because he hasn’t lived up to fans’ impressions. “Disappointing people is my central trauma.”

    Many had speculated that Smith would appear on camera to discuss the slap first on Pinkett Smith’s online series “Red Table Talk,” but he chose to do it in a social media video post without any follow-up questions or surprise queries.

    “It just had the reek of a fabricated attempt to be real. And that’s not what he wanted to accomplish, nor was it persuasive,” said Schiffer. “I do wish him well and hopefully he will find the right path. That path is really about humbleness and not about ego and self.”

    NEW YORK: Will Smith has again apologized to Chris Rock for slapping him during the Oscar telecast in a new video, saying that his behaviour was “unacceptable” and that he had reached out to the comedian to discuss the incident but was told Rock wasn’t ready.

    “There is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment,” Smith said in the under-six minute video posted online Friday. “I am deeply remorseful and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself.” To Rock, he said: “I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”

    Smith, seated in a polo shirt and white ball cap, spoke directly to a camera, answering pre-selected questions about his behaviour at the March 27 Academy Awards, when he slapped presenter Rock after the comedian made a reference about the hairstyle of Jada Pinkett Smith, Smith’s wife.

    Smith also apologized to Rock’s family and especially his mother, Rosalie, who was horrified to see her son hurt and told US Weekly that, “When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us. He really slapped me.” Smith also apologized to Tony Rock, Chris’ younger brother.

    “I didn’t realize how many people got hurt in that moment,” Smith said.

    Neither the apology or timing impressed crisis and PR expert Eric Schiffer, who called it “bizarre, strange and grossly over-rehearsed.”

    “It came across like he was doing a confessional in some closed room in a foreign country in order to escape the regime,” said Schiffer, chairman and CEO of Patriarch Equity and chairman of Reputation Management Consultants. “It’s just not the way to get out of the septic muck he put himself into because, once again, it started being about him and it’s still about him.”

    In the video, Smith also apologized to his family “for the heat that I brought on all of us” and his fellow Oscar nominees to have “stolen and tarnished your moment.” He mentioned Questlove by name; it was the musician-director’s documentary win for “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” that was interrupted by the slap. Rock was on stage to present the documentary award.

    Smith also said his wife did nothing to encourage his slap. “Jada had nothing to do with it,” he said. “I made a choice on my own.” Pinkett Smith has said that she has alopecia areata, a hair-loss disorder.

    Following the altercation, the motion picture academy banned Smith from attending the Oscars or any other academy event for 10 years. Smith apologized to Rock in a statement after the Oscars, saying he was “out of line and I was wrong.”

    “I’m sorry really isn’t sufficient,” Smith said in the video, adding that he is hurting because he hasn’t lived up to fans’ impressions. “Disappointing people is my central trauma.”

    Many had speculated that Smith would appear on camera to discuss the slap first on Pinkett Smith’s online series “Red Table Talk,” but he chose to do it in a social media video post without any follow-up questions or surprise queries.

    “It just had the reek of a fabricated attempt to be real. And that’s not what he wanted to accomplish, nor was it persuasive,” said Schiffer. “I do wish him well and hopefully he will find the right path. That path is really about humbleness and not about ego and self.”

  • Chris Rock on Will Smith slap at Oscars 2022: I’m not a victim

    While Rock had previously addressed the incident that was aired live across the world from the 2022 Academy Awards stage, this was his most direct response to the controversy yet.

  • Benedict Cumberbatch jokes about Will Smith’s Oscars slap

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: British star Benedict Cumberbatch joked about Will Smith’s Oscars controversy with Chris Rock in his ‘Saturday Night Live’ monologue.The 45-year-old star was nominated for the Best Actor gong at the Academy Awards for his performance in ‘The Power of the Dog’.Cumberbatch said during his monologue: “I really am thrilled to be back hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’. It’s been a really fun, great week.””I have to be honest, though, because most of the sketch writers pitched me sketches every day, and most were about ‘Doctor Strange’ – which is great, I love the guy, I love playing the character … but I have been in other films.”He joked that Lorne Michaels – the executive producer of ‘Saturday Night Live’ – asked him what other films he’d appeared in, reports femalefirst.co.uk.The actor added: “I said, ‘Well, like ‘The Power of the Dog.’ And he said, ‘Nobody saw it.’ I said, ‘Come on, man, I was nominated for an Oscar for that.’ I mean, I didn’t win. I was beat by Will Smith.”He then added: “No, not physically! Not physically!”Smith smacked Rock during the Oscars ceremony, after the stand-up comedian made a joke about his wife. The Hollywood star subsequently described his behaviour as “shocking, painful, and inexcusable”.

  • Comedian Dave Chappelle tackled on stage, Chris Rock says ‘Was it Will Smith?’

    By Online Desk

    U.S. comedian Dave Chappelle was reportedly tackled on stage during his show.

    Chappelle was performing at ‘Netflix is a Joke’, an 11-day comedy festival at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

    Social media footage showed a man charging onto the stage and tackling Chappelle while he was performing. The security personnel immediately dragged the comedian off the stage, the videos showed.

    According to The Independent, “He was finishing up his performance when a man ran on-stage and lunged at him knocking him to the floor. Security and his entourage then cornered the man as Dave joked about him getting ‘stomped’ backstage.”

    Comedian Chris Rock came on to the stage afterwards and asked “Was that Will Smith?”, in a dig at the actor after the Oscars incident, reported Daily Mail.

    The onstage altercation came up a month after actor Will Smith created headlines by slapping comedian Chris Rock on the Oscars stage, for which Smith was banned from the event for 10 years.

    ‘Netflix is a Joke’ held at Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles also featured stars like Pete Davidson, Snoop Dogg, Seth Rogan and Bill Burr.

  • When you hurt my child, you hurt me: Chris Rock’s mom reacts to Will Smith slapping her son at Oscars

    By ANI

    UNITED STATES: Nearly after a month of the 2022 Oscars slap controversy, Rose Rock has reacted to actor Will Smith slapping her son Chris Rock during the live telecast of the award ceremony.

    As per The Hollywood Reporter, Rose Rock, who is an author and motivational speaker, told an outlet that her son is doing well but “still processing” the incident that led Smith to resign from the Academy, following which the organization announced that the Oscar winner for ‘King Richard’ is banned from all events, including the Oscars ceremonies, for the next 10 years.

    “I told someone when Will slapped Chris, he slapped all of us, but he really slapped me. When you hurt my child, you hurt me,” Rose Rock said. Rose said she has no idea what she would say to Smith whenever they will cross paths.

    “I have no idea what I would say other than, ‘What in the world were you thinking?’ Because you did a slap, but so many things could have happened. Chris could have stepped back and fallen. You really could have gotten taken out in handcuffs. You didn’t think. You reacted to your wife giving you the side-eye, and you went up, and you made her day because she was bowled over laughing when it happened,” Rose said.

    She also shared her thoughts on the 10-year ban and said, “What does that mean? You don’t even go every year.”

    Rose said she didn’t think the Academy should have taken away Smith’s Oscar, and went on to say she was “really, really proud” of how her son reacted at the moment. She added that she didn’t think the apology Smith posted to his Instagram account on the day after the ceremony felt genuine.

    “I feel really bad that he never apologized. His people wrote up a piece and said, ‘I apologize to Chris Rock,’ but something like that is personal. You reach out,” Rose Rock said.

    The incident happened when Chris Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head while presenting the best documentary feature award at the 2022 Oscars.

    Rock said he couldn’t wait to see Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia areata, star in ‘G.I. Jane 2’ which led Smith to go up on stage and slap Rock. Smith returned to his seat and shouted, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f***** mouth!”

    A few minutes after the incident, Smith was announced Best Actor at the 94th Academy Awards. While accepting his first-ever Oscar for best actor (leading role) in ‘King Richard’, Smith apologized to the Academy and fellow nominees but did not mention Rock.

    For the unversed, Will Smith recently visited India marking her first public appearance post the controversy. He was spotted at a private airport in Mumbai on Saturday. 

  • Oscars effect: Tony Awards introduce ‘no violence’ policy ahead of 2022 show

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Tony Awards have introduced a new ‘no violence’ policy ahead of their 2022 show following the controversy surrounding the slapgate incident involving Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars.

    The award show’s producers revealed the new procedure— which clarifies how they’d handle an individual “in the event of an incident”  in a letter to ticket buyers on Wednesday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

    Oscars live show was briefly interrupted when Will Smith, this year’s best actor winner, slapped the comedian and presenter on the stage for cracking a joke about wife Jada Pinkett-Smith’s hair. The incident shocked the Hollywood audience attending the movie gala and those who tuned in through their screens.

    Smith, who later apologised to the comedian and the Academy, has been banned from Oscars and their other related events for a decade.

    The Tonys are the first known major award show to publicly institute a new no-violence policy following the Oscars on March 27.

    In the letter obtained by THR and sent by Tony Awards Productions to possible ticket buyers for the 75th annual show, producers wrote, “The Tony Awards has a strict no violence policy. In the event of an incident, the perpetrator will be removed from the event immediately,” the letter read.

    The new policy and other details were reportedly introduced among other standard policies to that include the dress code, seating, and vaccination required to attend the New York event. The Tony Awards will take place on Sunday, June 12.

  • Michael Bay says he would ‘absolutely’ work with Will Smith following Oscars slap controversy

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Filmmaker Michael Bay has stated that he would “absolutely” work with Will Smith after the actor slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.

    According to Variety, Bay, who has directed Smith in two of his signature action movies, ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Bad Boys II’, made the statement while speaking to Entertainment Weekly.

    “Absolutely, 100 per cent. He’s a very even-keeled guy. Very even-keeled,” Bay said when asked about working with Smith again. Bay further opened up a bit more about the slap. “At first, immediately I’m like, ‘Did this just happen?’” he said.

    Bay continued, “Then I saw the yell from Will. That’s a real Will yell. Will is an amazing fighter. He’s studied boxing. First of all, it’s wrong to do, no matter what. Let’s just get that out there. But when people said, ‘Oh, he could have killed him.’ No, a slap is different. A punch? Yeah, you can kill someone. Will gave him a slap.”

    While presenting the best documentary feature award at the 2022 Oscars, Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.

    Rock said he couldn’t wait to see Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia areata, star in ‘G.I. Jane 2’ which led Smith to go up on stage and slap Rock. Smith returned to his seat and shouted, “Keep my wife’s name out of your fu**ing mouth!”

    A few hours later, Smith announced his resignation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, claiming he “willfully accepts any and all consequences for my conduct.”

    Later, the Academy’s Board of Governors announced they were banning Smith from all events and awards appearances under the Oscars title for 10 years. Responding to it in a statement, the actor said, “I accept and respect the academy’s decision.”