Looks like the Oscars will have a few tools in place to make sure they don’t have another incident like last year! The 95th Academy Awards will be held tonight after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the live broadcast last year.
Oscars CEO Bill Kramer has announced that there will be a “crisis team” on deck to intervene if something unexpected happens. “We have a whole crisis team, something we’ve never had before, and many plans in place,” he said. “We’ve run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we’re planning for just in case it does happen.”
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In a recent interview with Hollywood Reporter this week, this years host, Jimmy Kimmel jokingly threatened to “beat the s–t” out of anyone who attempts to slap him on stage. “If somebody comes up on the stage and slaps me?” Kimmel said. “Well, I size them up, and, if I’m bigger than they are, I beat the s–t out of them on television. And if it’s the Rock, I run.”
However, the comedian admitted the buzz around the slap is getting played out – in his opinion, it’s “almost boring to joke about at this point.”
“Well, whatever I say about it, it’s going to have to be great, right?” he said, hinting at his opening monologue. “Because so much has been said and there’s so much focus on it. I obviously don’t want to make the whole monologue about that, but it would be ridiculous not to mention it.”
As we previously reported, a lot has transpired since the infamous slap. Following the viral incident, Will Smith did address the situation publicly on his YouTube channel and he said he attempted to reach out to Chris but didn’t get a response. “The message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk and when he is he will reach out,” explained Smith, who then directly apologized to Rock. “My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk,” he said.
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Chris Rock finally addressed the situation himself during his latest stand up special which was live on Netflix last week. During the last 10 minutes of his set Rock dedicated that time to address the moment and said “You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith,” Rock said. “It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears. But I’m not a victim, baby. You’ll never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying … I took that hit like Pacquiao.” He said.