Chris Rock stays tight-lipped about Will Smiths Oscars slap as he arrives in Boston for show – Daily Mail

A leaked letter from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences revealed Wednesday that leaders are ‘outraged and upset’ at Will Smith’s behavior at the Oscars, and that it could take weeks to dish out punishment for the actor who slapped Chris Rock during Sunday night’s awards show.

The letter, obtained by CNN just hours before the Academy is expected to hold a meeting to discuss the incident, states the altercation ‘overshadowed’ what was meant to be a celebration of the film community. 

The news comes after Rock, 57, was spotted in public for the first time since Sunday night’s Oscars. He kept his head down under a ball cap as he arrived in Boston around 6 p.m. on Tuesday ahead of his sold-out show Wednesday and quickly got into a waiting vehicle refusing to answer any questions about Sunday’s slapdown. 

Smith has publicly apologized to Rock for slapping him in one of the most shocking moments in awards show history, but there has been no response from Rock. He has declined to press charges against Smith.  

But Smith could still face punishment from the Academy, who condemned Smith’s actions and launched a formal review of the incident.

‘The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show. We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.’

In the letter leaked Wednesday morning, signed by Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson, states that the ‘Academy’s Board of Governors will now make a determination on appropriate action for Mr. Smith.’  

Read the full letter:  

Dear Members,

Sunday’s telecast of the 94th Oscars was meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year. We are upset and outraged that those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior on stage by a nominee.

To be clear, we condemn Mr. Smith’s actions that transpired Sunday night.

As outlined in our bylaws, the Academy’s Board of Governors will now make a determination on appropriate action for Mr. Smith. As governed by California law regarding members of nonprofit organizations like the Academy, and set forth in our Standards of Conduct, this must follow an official process that will take a few weeks.

We will continue to update you on any developments, but we also ask that you respect your Board, Academy staff and the process as this unfolds so it can work in the considered way it was intended and mandated.

Please trust that the Board of Governors will conduct this process in a manner that is both expedient and respectful of all involved while maintaining the standards of the Academy.

Thank you,

David Rubin, PresidentDawn Hudson, CEO

Tonight, Rock is scheduled to perform a sold-out show tonight, making it his first public appearance since the incident at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony. 

Ticket prices for Rock’s ‘Ego Death’ World Tour soared into the thousands as demand for seats spiked after Smith march on stage during the live show Sunday and smacked the stunned comedian across the face. 

Tickets on Stubhub are listed between $125 and $399. On Vividseats, tickets are listed between $244 and $1,150. And on TickPick, tickets are listed between $307 and $1,463.  

After arriving in Boston Tuesday, Rock was seen again later that night leaving Boston Hotel with his entourage, as he exited through a side door and immediately got into his waiting vehicle. He was thought to be headed to the Wilbur theater for rehearsals ahead of now sold-out shows.  

Rock will perform six shows at the Wilbur this week at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., Wednesday through Friday. Tickets for all shows are sold out, but tickets through third party distributors reportedly are available. 

TickPick sold more tickets overnight following the Oscars than they did in the past month combined, TickPick said wrote in a statement to the Boston Globe. Ticket prices for the shows skyrocketed 600 percent overnight, they added. The cheapest ticket was sold for $46 on March 18 – and now the lowest price is about $300.

‘King Richard’ best actor winner Smith shocked the crowd and viewers at home Sunday when he took the stage during Rock’s remarks after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Smith’s wife. Rock said, ‘Jada, I love you. `G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it.’

The joke touched a nerve. Pinkett Smith, whose head is shaved, has spoken publicly about her alopecia diagnosis.

Smith strode on stage and slapped Rock across the face. Back in his seat, Smith twice shouted for Rock to ‘get my wife’s name out your (expletive) mouth.’

His words echoed clearly throughout the Dolby, though broadcaster ABC cut the audio for about 15 seconds. Within 45 minutes, Smith won best actor. During his acceptance speech, Smith apologized to the academy. 

Smith on Monday also issued an apology to Rock, saying his behavior was ‘unacceptable and inexcusable’ and left him ’embarrassed’.

‘I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.’  

Rock, who had not been seen until today, told the Los Angeles Police Department that he does not want to press charges. A source told TMZ on Monday that after the slapping incident, he went backstage to his dressing room and has not spoken to Smith.  

But Smith could still face a misdemeanor charge for battery should Rock have a change of heart.  

More than half of Americans sided with Will Smith over Chris Rock in the now-infamous Oscars-slapping incident, according to a new poll that asked ‘Who do you think was more in the wrong?’

Blue Rose Research, a Democratic pollster, surveyed 2,162 Americans online regarding the heated moment at Sunday’s Academy Awards between Rock and Smith, with 52.3 percent of people saying Rock deserved what he got after he joked about Smith’s wife’s shave head. 

While Smith has received the lion’s share of public criticism and faces possible discipline from the Academy over the slap, data revealed a majority of Americans are on Team Smith, according to Blue Rose Researcher David Shor.

The poll comes ahead of an emergency meeting of the Academy’s board scheduled for Wednesday that will if Smith will suffer any punishment for his actions. 

According to the results, the majority of those between 18 and 64 years old believed Rock was in the wrong, while about 51.8 percent of those 65 and older thought Smith was the one who crossed the line.

Men and women were divided on the issue, with 56.5 percent of women agreeing that Rock was most at fault while 52.4 percent of men thought Smith was the one to blame.

In terms of income, the majority of those who made less than $100,000-a-year blamed Rock while the majority of those who made more blamed Smith.

About 51.1 percent of white people thought Rock was at fault, as did 56 percent of black people and 55.7 percent of Hispanics and Native Americans. Asians were split down the middle, according to the poll. 

When lining up the issue with how people voted in the 2020 presidential election, about 50.1 percent of Joe Biden voters put the blame on Smith while 50.8 percent of Donald Trump voters blamed Rock.

The majority of those who backed another candidate or did not vote also blamed Rock.

The poll also found that the majority of people who agreed that spanking a child was ‘sometimes necessary’ for discipline believed Rock was at fault while the majority of those who disagreed with the statement faulted Smith.  

Shor also displayed the results in a presidential electoral map, demonstrating that if people voted with how they perceived the slapping incident, Smith would sweep the with 470 electoral votes to Rock’s 68.

The Academy will meet tonight, where Smith’s fate could be decided. 

Disciplinary action could include anything from forcing him to hand back his Oscar to the most severe punishment – suspension from the Academy – which would put Smith among the ranks of Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, who were both expelled for sexual misconduct. 

A post-Oscars board meeting is always held to discuss the ceremony and address any concerns, but does not usually happen this soon, the Hollywood Reporter learned.

The decision to hold the meeting was made after the Academy met for an emergency call Monday night about the incident and released a statement announcing a launch of a formal review.

‘The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show. We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.’

O.J. Simpson chimed in on the slapdown Tuesday, saying he felt the same way when ‘every comedian in the country had an OJ routine.’

‘Look, I understood the feeling,’ said the acquitted double-murder suspect in a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday.

‘In my life, I’ve been through a lot of crap when I was raising two young kids and every comedian in the country had an O.J. routine, and don’t think I wouldn’t want to [b**ch] slap a couple of them, but you got to accept that it’s human.’ 

Simpson, 74, who ended up being convicted for armed robbery in Las Vegas in 2008 before being paroled in 2017, said he felt sympathetic toward Smith. But the disgraced NFL great nicknamed Juice still said the actor was wrong to hurt the comedian over a ‘semi un-funny joke.’

‘Hey, look, it was unfortunate. I think Will was wrong.’ 

Simpson went on to say that ‘after what happened to me in Las Vegas,’ authorities would have put him in prison. He was convicted after attempting to steal back what he claimed was his own memorabilia at gunpoint at a hotel on The Strip. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison before being paroled.

‘If I would have done that in front of a billion people watching around the world, they would have given me life without [parole], I’m just saying.’

Simpson is now a ‘completely free man’ after being granted an early discharge from parole by the Nevada Parole Board. He was granted good behavior credits and discharged from parole effective December 1,

‘Mr. Simpson is a completely free man now,’ said Malcolm LaVergne, Simpson’s lawyer in Las Vegas.

Simpson wasn’t the only one to condemn Smith’s actions, with podcast giant Joe Rogan, 54, saying on his podcast that the Men in Black actor only got away with it because of his big name.

‘It’s a rare instance that someone so enormously famous and successful like Will Smith that they literally still allowed him to not just win the Academy Award, but also go up and accept it and give a speech after he assaulted a small comedian on stage,’ he said.

He also worried that ‘dumb people’ will now have license to start attacking comedians after Smith stormed the Dolby Theatre stage Sunday and assaulted Rock. 

‘It sets a terrible precedent in so many different ways,’ Rogan said on his podcast on Tuesday. ‘It sets a terrible precedent for comedy clubs. Like, are people going to decide to go on stage and smack a comedian now.’

Fellow actor Jim Carrey, 60, also said he was ‘sickened by the standing ovation’ after Smith won his award.

‘I felt like Hollywood is just spineless en masse. It really felt like this is a clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore,’ he said on CBS Morning News.

Benedict Cumberbatch, a fellow Best Actor nominee, as well as Best Director nominee Paul Thomas Anderson and actress Maya Rudolph were some of the stars who stood for Smith’s win. Venus and Serena Williams, whose father was portrayed by Smith in King Richard, also stood.

Carrey, who briefly overlapped with Rock in the early 90s on Fox’s In Living Color, claimed Rock didn’t file charges about the slap because he ‘didn’t want the hassle’ and suggested Smith should have been arrested.

‘I’d have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200 million because that video’s gonna be there forever. It’s gonna be ubiquitous. That insult is gonna last a very long time,’ Carrey said.

The Mask actor seemed to indicate that expressing disapproval of the joke, saying something on Twitter or even yelling from the audience wasn’t beyond the pale – but what Smith ended up doing crossed the line.

‘You do not have the right to walk up on stage and smack somebody on the face because they said words,’ Carrey said.

The Ace Ventura star suggested that something was ‘going on’ inside of Smith that caused him to do that, and that he acted selfishly.

‘It didn’t escalate, it came out of nowhere because Will has something going on inside him that’s frustrated and I wish him the best, I really do,’ Carrey said. ‘I don’t have anything against Will Smith, he’s done great things.

‘It cast a pall over everybody’s shining moment, a lot of people worked really hard to get to that place,’ The Truman Show star added. ‘It is no mean feat to go through all the stuff you have to go through when you get nominated for an Oscar. It’s a gauntlet of devotion. It was just a selfish moment.’

Carrey’s comments come as The View host Whoopi Goldberg, who is also a member of the Academy board of governors, said she believes Smith will be able to keep his Oscar but will face ‘big consequences because nobody is okay with what happened.’

‘There are consequences,’ she said during a taping of The View Tuesday. ‘There are big consequences because nobody is OK with what happened.’

‘Nobody, nobody, nobody,’ she added. 

She said that criticism of the stunned crowd was out of line because of the chaotic moment unfolding in real time.

The reason people went over to Smith, she said, is because ‘people thought Oh my god, is he having a break? Do we need to get him out? What do we need to do?’

The incident continues to be a national conversation and Goldberg added Tuesday that she hopes people begin to ask: ‘What could have triggered this?’

‘What’s happening is people are now starting to calm down and say, ‘Wait a minute, what could have triggered this?’ Could have been the four years ago, could have been anything.’

The ‘four years ago’ is in reference to Rock making jokes about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, at a another awards show.

Pinkett Smith, 50, finally broke her silence on Tuesday with an Instagram post that read, ‘This is a season for healing and I’m here for it.’

Pinkett Smith posted the words on a pink background, but did not share a caption. She has remained quiet since the dramatic events unfolded Sunday night.