SICK HOLLYWOOD!
At one point, Actor Will Smith got out of his seat, walked on stage and slapped Comedian Chris Rock for a joke he told, which mentioned Smith’s wife. Following the slap, viewership did briefly jump by more than a half million, and rose again later when Smith went onstage to receive an award.
2022 Academy Awards: Will Smith’s disorientation, Hollywood’s and America’s
The incident involving actor Will Smith and comic Chris Rock at the Academy Awards on Sunday night has grabbed public attention worldwide. Video clips of the episode have now been viewed hundreds of millions of times.
Smith, seated in the front row at the annual film awards ceremony, charged the stage and slapped Rock on live television, after the comic had made a tasteless but essentially innocuous joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her shaven head.
The audience at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles went silent—as did the ABC television broadcast, for an unprecedented 30 seconds or more. Upon returning to his seat, a censored (in the US) Smith could be seen twice screaming at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f---ing mouth.”
“Despite some backstage consultations, the organization and producers decided not to remove Smith from the event,” Deadline reported. Less than half an hour later, Smith was permitted to deliver a rambling, tearful acceptance speech after he won the best actor award for King Richard (directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green).
While vaguely apologizing, Smith ended up essentially defending his action, comparing himself to the figure he plays in King Richard, Richard Williams, the father of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. Williams, Smith said, “was a fierce defender of his family.” Later in his speech, he commented, “I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams, but love will make you do crazy things.”
Rock has so far declined to press assault charges with the Los Angeles police, but he would certainly be within his rights to do so. On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a statement condemning “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.”
On Monday night, Smith issued a more direct, if formulaic apology in an Instagram post, asserting that violence “in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable.” He then went on to excuse himself, on the grounds that “a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.”
Smith went on, “There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.” He concluded, “I am a work in progress.” The actor, generally known for his amiable and easy-going film and television persona, is 53 years old—it might be time for him to act his age. In any event, a contrite appearance somewhere with Oprah Winfrey would presumably allow him back into Hollywood’s good graces.
If the Academy officials possessed any genuine integrity, they would have asked Smith to leave the Dolby Theatre and allowed him to pick up his award at some other time, or they might have delivered it to him. Statements condemning Smith’s violence, after essentially condoning it, ring entirely hollow.
The inability to discipline Smith, at least initially, speaks to the larger issues involved. The actor belongs to the world of celebrities, whose immense wealth (Smith is estimated to be worth $350 million) and fame put them largely beyond the normal reach of the authorities or mere mortals generally—unless, of course, an alleged sexual transgression or “micro-aggression” is involved.
The cult of celebrity has reached an advanced and severely damaging stage in America, having “flourished” dramatically in recent decades. As the actual conditions of life have drastically worsened for tens of millions, the need to live vicariously through others “more fortunate,” to lead a fantasy life, has grown exponentially. As we noted more than two decades ago, “Excessive celebrity must be linked to inequality, indeed becomes a rationale for inequality and reinforces it, ideologically and materially. The heaping of fame and wealth upon a single individual, or a handful of individuals, is only possible and meaningful if the vast majority have no access to those rewards.”
From a rational point of view, Smith’s action was undoubtedly bizarre. The actor first smiled in response to Rock’s jibe, before apparently girding his loins for battle. As with a large portion of Hollywood personalities’ behavior, it is almost impossible in this case to distinguish feeling from playing at feeling. The assault felt contrived, artificial. Such people are always acting. We have no idea what went through Smith’s head in those few seconds. “What am I expected to do?” he might have thought. “If I just sit here, I may be laughed at for allowing my wife to be insulted in public.”
It is also possible that Smith had absorbed too much from the mediocre, Williams family-authorized “biopic” for which he was about to receive an award. He may have been acting on the basis of some nonsense he drew from the Richard Williams story about “defending” wife, family, etc. If so, it was an absurd and pathetic miscalculation. Smith now runs the risk of being remembered more for this moment than for any of his film or television appearances.
The episode on Sunday reveals something real about the Hollywood environment, but so much of that environment is itself unreal. Like everything “royal,” Hollywood royalty too has a great deal false and deceptive about it. Stars have money and attention heaped upon them, and they—and much of the public—may interpret that, under certain conditions, as a sign of quasi-divine approval. The gods, however, do not hand out the gift of full psychological and personal development so freely. An actor may have a persona, face and physique that “works,” to one extent or another, in front of a camera, and yet remain extremely limited as a human being. Given a change in circumstances, such as took place between Smith’s slap and his pitiable, semi-incoherent acceptance speech a short while later, a Hollywood “prince” may suddenly appear to be “only a washed-out man with a flabby lower lip,” to borrow a phrase.
Smith’s reference to the fact that there was “no place for violence in a world of love and kindness” has to be seen in the proper context. The incident Sunday night was immediately shocking, because public events in the US, pre-packaged and largely embalmed, are not usually intruded upon by anything unexpected.
But, in the larger sense, there is not the slightest reason to view the Smith-Rock altercation as “shocking.” American life is exceedingly, excessively violent. Some 40,000 people, for example, are killed by guns every year in the US. Three months into 2022, there have already been 112 mass shootings, more than one a day, and more than 4,400 killings and more than 5,800 suicides involving firearms.
American military forces are everywhere. The Pentagon officially acknowledges some 800 bases around the world, in 80 countries. After making war on and devastating Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and other countries, resulting in mass death and misery, the Biden administration has turned its attention toward Russia and threatens to unleash a third world war.
Moreover, the specific conditions of 2022, in the midst of an entirely avoidable pandemic, that has ended 1 million lives in the US, must be factored into the maddened, desperate goings-on at the Academy Awards and in other arenas. The film industry may officially ignore COVID-19, having devoted no more than a minute or two Sunday night to the catastrophic pandemic, but COVID-19 has not ignored the film industry. Performers, writers and crew members have lost their lives. Devastating financial losses took place in 2020 and 2021. The future of the movie theater business is in question. Hollywood has increasingly become a factory for producing a handful of bland, empty “blockbusters.” The normal insecurity of the acting profession has been multiplied by a significant factor.
Inevitably, the legitimately appalled response to the Smith outburst has been seized upon by the identity politics brigade as a sign of “white racism.” The Guardian headlined an article, “White outrage about Will Smith’s slap is rooted in anti-Blackness. It’s inequality in plain sight.” The piece claimed that the reaction to the Smith slap “feels precious at best, and downright racist at worst.” The backlash against Smith, we are told, “is rooted in not just anti-Blackness, but respectability politics as well.” This type of “performative pearl-clutching is only ever reserved for Black men who mess up.”
These stupid, preposterous remarks were echoed in various quarters. For all intents and purposes, National Public Radio (NPR) defended Smith, referring to the “many online” who asserted that “For once … here was a Black man publicly sticking up for his Black wife—and her Black hair—on a stage where Blackness has historically been overlooked or outright shunned.”
Race and gender politics received their inevitable, disgraceful due at the Academy Awards ceremony itself. Virtually nothing takes place in Hollywood these days that has not been vetted by the identity politics censors and calculators. When Ariana DeBose, the least impressive of the lead performers in West Side Story, accepted her award as best supporting actress, she presented herself as “an openly queer woman of color, an Afro‑Latina, who found her strength in life through art.”
Overall, if the Smith-Rock episode could overshadow the rest of the awards program, it was because the rest of the awards program could so relatively easily be overshadowed.
The incident highlighted a ceremony that struck the wrong note at almost every turn. While CODA, a generally well-intentioned and humane film, won awards for best picture, supporting actor (Troy Kotsur) and adapted screenplay (director Siân Heder), the two most serious works by far up for awards, the biting satire Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay) and Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, came away empty-handed.
As we noted in February, Minamata (Andrew Levitas) and A Hero (Asghar Farhadi), neither of which received any nominations, were “the two most obviously deserving films … entirely and disgracefully ignored by Academy voters.” For that matter, with all its limitations, Steven Spielberg-Tony Kushner’s West Side Story (one award) involved far greater thought and skill than most the films that gathered in numerous prizes.
All in all, it should come as no surprise that much of the American population is alienated from and even hostile toward the film world, which largely turns its back on the population’s greatest problems and focuses incessantly on petty issues of vital interest to the affluent middle class. ABC’s broadcast of the Academy Awards on Sunday attracted an estimated audience in the US of 15.3 million viewers, an improvement on last year’s all-time low of 10.4 million, but still the second worst in history. As recently as 1998, more than 48 million Americans watched the ceremony.
At one point, for several decades of the last century, the Hollywood film studios and considerable sections of the American population spoke the same language, or at least could understand one another.
“In January 1940,” David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace explained, John Ford’s “The Grapes of Wrath [a film about the Great Depression and its victims] opened to unanimous critical praise, surprise, and awe. Public response was equally overwhelming. Opening day attendance at New York’s Rivoli Theatre broke all previous records.” William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives, about the difficulties of World War II veterans, sold an estimated 55 million movie tickets in 1946, i.e., to more than half the adult population. But then, overall, 80 million people went to movie theaters every week that year.
Developments in the class struggle, the emergence of a mass movement aimed against the foundations of the existing social order, must bring forward new artistic voices and forces onto the scene. The present situation is simply untenable.
Academy Claims Will Smith Refused to Leave Oscars Ceremony as Board Disciplinary Inquiry Begins, Expulsion on the Table
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced that it has begun “disciplinary proceedings” against Will Smith on Wednesday while clarifying that the organization asked the actor to leave the Oscars ceremony on Sunday night when he assaulted comedian Chris Rock live on television.
Expanding on its previous statements, the Academy went beyond merely condemning Will Smith’s actions but also apologized to Chris Rock for what transpired.
“The Board of Governors today initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, including inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy,” the statement said, per The Hollywood Reporter (THR).
The Academy added that Will Smith will be given a chance to defend himself in written word before the board convenes on April 18 to decide the appropriate disciplinary action, which could include “suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions permitted by the Bylaws and Standards of Conduct.”
After Smith stormed the stage and assaulted Rock on Sunday, he screamed obscenities at the comedian, accepted the award for Best Actor, and appeared, in his acceptance speech, to condone his behavior by saying “love will make you do crazy things.”
***LANGUAGE WARNING***
Smith later attended the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty and danced the night away.
According to the Academy, Smith was asked to leave the ceremony but refused.
“Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in that moment,” the Academy said. “We also apologize to our nominees, guests and viewers for what transpired during what should have been a celebratory event.”
“Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated. 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,” it concluded.
The Board of Governors today initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, including inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy.
Consistent with the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, as well as California law, Mr. Smith is being provided at least 15 days’ notice of a vote regarding his violations and sanctions, and the opportunity to be heard beforehand by means of a written response. At the next board meeting on April 18, the Academy may take any disciplinary action, which may include suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions permitted by the Bylaws and Standards of Conduct.
Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television. Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in that moment. We also apologize to our nominees, guests and viewers for what transpired during what should have been a celebratory event.
Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated. 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.
According to THR awards columnist Scott Feinberg, multiple members of the Academy expressed to him in private that they would like to see Will Smith’s membership suspended in light of the organization’s Standards of Conduct that was implemented during the fallout over convicted sexual predator Harvey Weinstein.
Will Smith issued an Instagram apology on Monday, calling his behavior “inexcusable.”
“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable,” he said.
Chris Rock has yet to publicly comment on the incident.
Nolte: Corrupt Motion Picture Academy Needs ‘Weeks’ to Probe Will Smith Incident
The corrupt Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says it will require “weeks” to probe into and decide what to do about Will Smith and his unprovoked assault on comedian Chris Rock.
“As outlined in our bylaws, the Academy’s Board of Governors will now make a determination on appropriate action for Mr. Smith,” read a letter to Academy members Tuesday night. “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.”
Weeks?
Weeks!?
What is this, the Lindbergh kidnapping? Some big mystery?
It takes three days to fly to the moon.
Israel won a war in six days.
You idiots need weeks to figure out how to handle a full-blown, unprovoked assault on one of your own presenters, on a guy you invited into your house? You moral midgets need weeks when you have videotape of the incident? When you have 15 million witnesses? You need weeks to probe, convene, decide, issue, proclaim, assemble, conclude, and determine what to do about a guy who came into your house, dropped his pants, and took a dump on your coffee table?
***LANGUAGE WARNING***
You invite Chris Rock to present an Oscar… Then you don’t protect him… Then you don’t expel, Will Smith, the guy who assaulted him… Then you give the guy who assaulted him an Oscar… Then you give the guy who assaulted him two — two! — standing ovations.
How would you like to be Chris Rock right now? His behavior throughout all of this has been exemplary and classy… From top to bottom, he’s handled himself like a pro… He did nothing wrong… He has said nothing since… Nevertheless, the same people who invited him and failed to protect him are so morally broken they need “weeks” to figure out how to do the right thing.
ABC/Screenhsot
What’s even more grotesque is that it should not be the Academy deciding anything. Instead, the Academy itself should be censured and investigated for its own obscene mishandling of this.
Keep in mind that this is the same Academy that had no problem booting a member for copying a few screeners. But he was just an everyday actor, not the billion-dollar Big Willie Inc. brand!
This was violence, y’all.
Violence.
And it wasn’t just violence; it was violence committed by an entitled star who believed he could commit an assault in front of the whole world.
This is violence committed at your own Oscar ceremony.
How much uglier, how much more disrespectful and contemptuous does a man have to behave to get booted from your prestigious club?
Oh, yeah, you’ve booted Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, and Roman Polanski, three guys whose careers were already on the wane. That took no courage.
But Big Willie just won an Oscar and got all that plastic surgery… His career was just about to surge in an industry that can only produce about eight blockbusters a year. So that decision’s going to require … weeks.
The only thing the Academy should be concerned with is doing right by Chris Rock.
Shame on all of them.
What a broken industry. Broken forever.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
2 Out of 3 Americans Think Dem Donor Should Be Charged With Assault
A majority of Americans believe actor and Democratic megadonor Will Smith should be criminally charged for his assault on comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars, according to a new poll.
The survey conducted by OnePoll found 66 percent of respondents believe Smith should be booked for assault, including 36 percent who "strongly" believe he should be charged.
Smith slapped Rock at the Academy Awards on Sunday night after Rock made a joke referring to Smith's wife's bald head. Smith stormed the stage, struck Rock, and then returned to his seat, shouting, "Keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth."
Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who say they are in an open marriage, are major supporters of the Democratic Party. The couple, along with top fundraisers such as Harvey Weinstein, were among bundlers for former president Barack Obama's reelection campaign, helping to raise more than $500,000 for Obama.
While most respondents said Smith should face charges, 62 percent still said they believe he had at least some justification for slapping Rock.
Smith apologized Tuesday to Rock for the assault. Police in Los Angeles, where the attack took place, said they don't intend to book Smith unless Rock presses charges.
Commie Cash: Academy Museum Won’t Discuss Ties to China’s Wanda Group After $20 Million Donation
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles officially opened its doors to the public on Thursday after years of planning, construction, and delays. And like many things in the movie business these days, the museum comes with prominent ties to Communist China.
Museum leaders have given gallery naming rights to the Dalian Wanda Group after the Chinese conglomerate donated $20 million to help finance the museum’s $482 million creation. But they are declining to comment to Breitbart News about the ethical dilemmas posed by the partnership.
The museum’s Wanda Gallery, located on the second floor, features exhibition space devoted to the inaugural show “Stories of Cinema” — a survey of the history of cinema that spotlights a rotating series of filmmakers and actors. The current exhibition highlights the careers of Spike Lee and Bruce Lee, as well as the history of the Oscars.
General view of the Academy Museum during the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California on February 7, 2020. (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
View of the Spike Lee room during the Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures opening press event, in Los Angeles, California, September 21, 2021. (ALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Wanda Group has become a prominent force in Hollywood through its ownership of Legendary Pictures, which produced the upcoming Dune and the recent Godzilla movies. The company used to own the AMC cinema chain before selling off its stake earlier this year.
Wanda’s close ties to China’s Communist Party represent an ethical conundrum for the Academy Museum, given the museum’s stated commitment to inclusion and diversity in its presentation of film history.
Billionaire Wang Jianlin, who founded and serves as chairman of Wanda, is a member of the CCP.
Chairman of China’s Wanda Group Wang Jianlin (WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images)
China’s authoritarian regime routinely censors movies for content and bans films that it perceives to be antagonistic to its rule. As Breitbart News reported, the title of the critically acclaimed film Moses on the Plain was recently changed to Fire on the Plain after Beijing objected to the word “Moses.”
Beijing has also banned films due to homosexuality, negative depictions of the communist party, and favorable depictions of democracy protests Hong Kong.
In addition to artistic and political censorship, China’s Communist Party has committed numerous human rights atrocities, including acts of genocide on ethnic Uyghurs and on the Tibetan people, and the imprisonment of political dissidents.
Members of the Uyghur American Association rally in front of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The Academy Museum didn’t respond to questions from Breitbart News, which included:
Given Wanda’s $20 million donation, are museum leaders concerned about being associated with a party that routinely censors and bans movies?
Was there any objection from museum board members about the Wanda donation?
Has Wanda imposed any conditions in exchange for its donation?
What is the museum’s position regarding movie censorship as practiced by China?
Would the museum ever showcase movies and filmmakers from Taiwan?
Would the museum ever screen movies that have been banned in China and/or condemned by the CCP, including but not limited to: Kundun, Seven Years in Tibet, Do Not Split, Nomadland.
Wanda’s $20 million gift is among the largest in the museum’s young history and is more than what major Hollywood studios including Netflix, Warner Bros, and NBCUniversal have given to the institution.
Among the other big-ticket donations were billionaire David Geffen’s $25 million gift, as well as $10 million each from Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg. The museum’s largest listed donor is billionaire Haim Saban, who donated $50 million.
The hoopla surrounding the museum, which is located adjacent to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Blvd., culminated Saturday with a celebrity gala that included appearances by Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cher, Katy Perry, Jennifer Hudson, Eva Longoria, and Sophia Loren.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
Rubio: We’re Destroying Our Economy While China Continues ‘to Build Theirs at Our Expense’
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Wednesday lamented the Biden administration’s efforts to push Green New Deal policies and its handling of China.
Rubio pointed out that the China initiative in the Trump Justice Department had been done away with due to claims of xenophobia and that China was “ramping up coal production.” He argued U.S. economy was being destroyed by the Green New Deal policies while the Asian superpower continued “to build theirs at our expense.”
“Everybody around here now says we recognize that China is a generational threat, right? That that is the challenge before us that’s going to define the 21st century,” Rubio outlined on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom.” “So, one of the problems we have is they, spy. They spy at our universities, they steal technology secrets, trade secrets, research everything else that we do. So, we had this China initiative at the Justice Department under Trump to go after that espionage. Well, now that’s been canceled. And that’s been canceled because a bunch of people out there went out and started arguing it was xenophobic … ignoring the fact, for example, that a significant percentage of the people that have been investigated and caught up in the China initiative aren’t Chinese Americans. They’re Americans who were getting paid or getting other benefits to turn over their research to China. So, they canceled that initiative.”
“Likewise, I mean, you talk about, on the one hand, all these things we need to do to create independence from China, but on the other, you have this Green New Deal proposal. China is ramping up coal production,” he continued. “They are not only ramping up coal production in their own country, they’re funding all kinds of coal-fired plants all over the world. They don’t have time for any Green New Deal. And here we are begging for their solar panels, the batteries that they make and all that so we can destroy our economy while they continue to build theirs at our expense.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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