Slap Update IV: Harry Potter Weighs In

No one knows more about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock than I do. I’ve read every single thing written about it. I’m considering getting a PhD in the events of the 94th Academy Awards, and I could finish early and with honors. As an expert in the subject, I am here today to provide you with all the updates from day four of slap coverage. Here we go.

Chris Rock Speaks

At his first stand-up show since the slap, Chris Rock walked onstage in Boston to thunderous applause. Variety obtained audio of the show, where Rock said, “I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny.”

Serious and funny? Now I’ve heard it all.

Will Smith Was Asked to Leave

It was previously reported that, while Academy leadership considered removing Smith from the ceremony after the slap, by the time any “substantive scenarios were imagined,” he was already at the podium accepting his Oscar.

According to a new statement from the Academy, however, Smith was in fact asked to leave before winning Best Actor. “While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently,” the statement read.

According to TMZ, President of the Academy David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson were the people who told Smith to leave. I don’t know how much I believe that, due to the fact that no reporter in the theater saw them approach Smith. Perhaps they relayed the request through his reps, at whom they were apparently yelling backstage.

Whatever the truth is, Smith now faces “suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions permitted” by the Academy. A bold move from the same group that nominated Mel Gibson for Best Director in 2017.

Wanda Sykes Is “Traumatized”

The Oscars host appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show to discuss what happened at the awards show. “It was sickening. It was absolutely — I physically felt ill, and I'm still a little traumatized by it,” Sykes said.

The comedian was one of the people who believed Smith should have been ejected. “If you assault somebody, you get escorted out the building and that's it. But for them to let him continue, I thought it was gross,” the comedian said. Ellen, a noted paragon of empathy and kindness, nodded on.

The G.I. Jane Hair Stylist Weighs In

Enzo Angileri, the man behind Demi Moore’s buzzcut in the 1997 movie, said that he thought Jada Pinkett-Smith looked “amazing, so regal.” Angileri also thought she took Rock’s joke too seriously. “It’s nothing to cause such a rolling of the eyes in my opinion, that stimulated her husband to act that way,” he told Page Six. Next, I’ll be asking the hair stylist from V for Vendetta if they felt snubbed by not being mentioned.

Daniel Radcliffe Is “Bored”

While doing press for The Lost City in the U.K., Radcliffe was asked about his thoughts on the slap. “I’m just so already dramatically bored of hearing people’s opinions about it that I just don’t want to be another opinion adding to it,” the Harry Potter actor said. Buddy, me too.