Comedian Chris Rock has refused to file and official police report following a dispute with Actor Will Smith at the 94th Academy Awards, according to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
According to the LAPD, the comedian has refused to file a report against Smith.
Comedian Chris Rock has refused to file and official police report following a dispute with Actor Will Smith at the 94th Academy Awards, according to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
As per ‘Variety’, Smith, who also won the Academy Award for Actor in a Lead Role, went on the stage and smacked Rock, after the comedian made an insensitive joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.
The LAPD statement states, “LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards programme. The incident involved one individual slapping another.”
Moving to talking about Rock the statement further read, "The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report.”
Rock was presenting the award for the Best Documentary Feature, when he cracked a joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head and compared it with Demi Moore’s look in the movie ‘G.I.Jane’ (1997).
Pinkett Smith, who is the wife of actor Will Smith, suffers from a condition of abnormal hair loss known as alopecia. She made an announcement last year about shaving her head following her struggle with alopecia. She wrote in a post last year, "Now at this point, I can only laugh ... y'all know I've been struggling with alopecia ... Mama's gonna have to take it down to the scalp so nobody thinks she got brain surgery or something. Me and this alopecia are going to be friends ... period!"
Rock mentioned that he couldn’t wait to see her starring in ‘G.I. Jane 2’. This lead to Smith going up on the stage and slapping Rock. As Smith returned to his seat, he shouted, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f****** mouth!”
Later, while Smith was giving his tearful acceptance speech, he apologised for the incident. He said, "I want to apologise to the Academy. I want to apologise to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I'm not crying for winning an award. It's not about winning an award for me. It's about being able to shine a light on all of the people.”
During the time in between the slap incident and Smith’s best actor win, Smith met Denzel Washington. The Oscar winning actor gave Smith a word of advice and said, “At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.”