Awards Season 2021

[lacritfan]

Academy “Condemns” Will Smith’s Actions, Opens Formal Review of Oscars Incident

[Toland's Mitchell]

I get that "two wrongs don't make a right". But I would hate to see Rock apologizing for a joke after having been physically assaulted. Also, I would hate to see Rock apologizing to Smith considering the joke was not about him.

Well then he can apologize to Jada. In any case, while Chris did not deserve Will's hand, my point was Chris was not completely innocent. It was a bad, tasteless joke that should not have been said, especially at the Oscars with millions watching. But yes, Will definitely owes a bigger apology. My hope is they sort it out.

And I don't agree that Chris should press charges. What's the fine for assault? 1 to 2 grand? Hardly a dime out of Will's pocket, and it's not like Chris needs money himself. As knives and Brian mentioned, it wouldn't be a good career move for Chris, and not every dispute between two people needs police involvement. I think it'd be better if they sort it out themselves, and make some public appearance proclaiming peace between them.

My big issue about this mess was that nobody from the production of the show did anything in the 40 minutes that elapsed between the incident and Will's win, or at all for that matter. That sent a strange message and an unshakable awkwardness for the rest of the night, ultimately making the Academy look worse than Will.

[domino harvey]

[Finch]

Of the two options mentioned in the HR piece, the revocation of the Oscar feels like the more stinging of the two, because, outside of Will Smith, who cares how long he is suspended from the Academy unless it's a permanent ban. I wonder how the studio would react if he was stripped of his award after the fact. Then again, I'd be surprised if they got a lot of mileage out of his win right now since it feels like there's more people disapproving of his actions than support.

Variety: Why Will Smith wasn't ejected from Oscars

Oscars: What Was Happening in the ABC Control Room as Will Smith Slapped Chris Rock

[therewillbeblus]

One of the reasons I find this whole elasticity of moral 'nuance' pertaining to violence ridiculous is that many people have misconceptions that these physical scars always heal, minimizing the effects of it. Not only are there degrees of psychological trauma that can occur (regardless of how one 'appears' to shrug it off), but any number of things can go wrong. Sure, they didn't here, but if hypothetically Chris Rock had an embolism in his head that burst when Smith struck him, or fallen the wrong way and hit his head in the wrong place, that's manslaughter. I realize I'm using worst case examples in a fantasy situation, but I've peripherally known people who have been tragically involved in that exact scenario occurring, and I'm shocked at how many people are shrugging this off ("Sure, Smith was wrong, but Rock was too!") when someone engaged in physical violence, that carries serious potential for (yes, at times, life-threatening) damaging consequences. Words fucking hurt, and can be equally psychologically damaging in their own right, but come on- "Standing up for your family" via a method of engaging in an impulsive and regressive intervention that has the potential to do serious harm should not be brushed aside regardless of, or attempt to be equated with, the provocative comment. Some people seem to be celebrating the act of devolution to one's reptilian brain, or pretending like verbal and physical aggression are even close to the same thing, and that's just bewildering.

[Finch]

Yeah, there's a quote from a Board of Governors member in another Variety piece:

“I think Chris got what he deserved. Didn’t he make a movie about Black women’s hair?” said one of the Board of Governors for the Academy, who asked to remain anonymous. “And then you go on national TV and make fun of a Black woman’s hair? He’s lucky that’s all he did. But now look, this whole night is ruined and we can’t even celebrate because that’s all people are talking about.”

This from a member of the board of Governors. Quite chilling, really. What's next? Comedians wearing bulletproof vests to their gigs?

[Finch]

Re the tweet domino shared: what a messed up family the Smiths are.

[lacritfan]

How Will Smith Celebrated His Oscar 2022 Win at Vanity Fair’s Party

Sienna Miller said she loved the moment. “I hope you would do the same for me,” Miller told her date.

[captveg]

I'm still hoping Chris Rock sues Smith and ABC/The Academy.

[hearthesilence]

Supposedly Chris Rock didn't know she had alopecia.

[domino harvey]

Yeah, there's a quote from a Board of Governors member in another Variety piece:

“I think Chris got what he deserved. Didn’t he make a movie about Black women’s hair?” said one of the Board of Governors for the Academy, who asked to remain anonymous. “And then you go on national TV and make fun of a Black woman’s hair? He’s lucky that’s all he did. But now look, this whole night is ruined and we can’t even celebrate because that’s all people are talking about.”

This from a member of the board of Governors. Quite chilling, really. What's next? Comedians wearing bulletproof vests to their gigs?

The board is convening a full meeting Wednesday. They will probably issue a lame slap on the wrist (one year suspension, say) to make it look like they don’t fucking love that this happened

[therewillbeblus]

Gotta love that tweet “The Academy does not condone violence in any form [Now let’s celebrate the winners!]” You absolutely condoned it when you did nothing to stop it or issue consequences or approach the assaulted with security to even issue a warning or review a no violence policy or… engage in any intervention whatsoever to signal that you’re even disappointed. Way to put your foot down

[domino harvey]

SAG-AFTRA issued a much stronger and unambiguous statement and they’re getting involved in the process

[Swift]

Smith apologises to Rock on Instagram

[domino harvey]

Yeah, he looked positively tormented and heartbroken over what he did while gettin’ jiggy wit it at the after party. His team obviously finally got him to realize he probably wasn’t going to be able to ride this one out without an apology to Rock, but that’s already better than I expected based on last night

[hearthesilence]

The whole thing's already festered too much. Now you have people like Sienna Miller disgustingly applauding that course of action without qualification. I keep thinking back to teachers who saw a spike in bullying in the wake of Trump's election, a reflection of the approval given to his behavior (even if it's only a minority of the country). I'm just so thoroughly disgusted.

[knives]

Yeah, he looked positively tormented and heartbroken over what he did while gettin’ jiggy wit it at the after party. His team obviously finally got him to realize he probably wasn’t going to be able to ride this one out without an apology to Rock, but that’s already better than I expected based on last night

This is another I hate social media thing, but I wish this didn’t have to be so public. I wish the apology could be private.

[soundchaser]

Yeah, he looked positively tormented and heartbroken over what he did while gettin’ jiggy wit it at the after party. His team obviously finally got him to realize he probably wasn’t going to be able to ride this one out without an apology to Rock, but that’s already better than I expected based on last night

This is another I hate social media thing, but I wish this didn’t have to be so public. I wish the apology could be private.

Even just “Chris and I have spoken and I have apologized to him privately” would feel different, if nothing else. I hope we can move past this quickly, but the discussion is already transmuting into a number of other frustrating ones.

[domino harvey]

Why should we move past it quickly?

[soundchaser]

Because the more it dominates the discourse the more it will cease to be about what actually happened — the narrative gets more and more convoluted and loaded. Although I’m guilty of this myself, so maybe it’s hypocritical of me to say.

[Rayon Vert]

I'm completely on the side of those who expressed here that there is not a shred of equivalency between what Smith did and what the comedian/host did (which was doing his job!, no matter how potentially tastelessly). And I'm glad to see Smith apologize, but what he did is still traumatic to process.

That said, I heard someone pointing out to page 1 of Will Smith's recently published autobiography. It's easy to read that he feared being the "coward" again. (Available to read on the Amazon preview. See chapter 1 "Fear", page 1, past the prologue "The Wall".) Probably a little (or more) therapy is called for!

[tehthomas]

I see this event as another kindling into the ongoing freedom of speech debate/culture wars.

It is interesting in terms of who has the right to *not* be offended.

[domino harvey]

Thank God Will Smith didn't launch a paper airplane into the audience, he might have actually been escorted out

[swo17]

IMDb with the strongest rebuke of all

Spoiler

[reaky]

Really interesting thread by Max Burns on Twitter. Chris Rock not being a Scientologist, as far as I know, it suggests Smith was taking his indoctrination into the lay arena. A few excerpts:

Will Smith almost certainly went through the Scientology courses that teach you to unapologetically use slaps and physical force to let a fellow Scientologist know they've done something wrong.

There's a Scientology course, I guess you'd call it, that involves slapping/physically humiliating fellow Scientologists in a group setting as a means of exerting superiority. It is *remarkably* common within the cult.

Under Scientology, Smith's slap of Rock was the *only* acceptable response to what Rock did. In Scientology, inaction over disrespect is in itself grounds to get yourself slapped by a higher-ranking Scientologist.

And Smith certainly feels he did right.

https://twitter.com/themaxburns/status/ ... Ow-WxmHxCg