The Academy Awards has taken to Twitter to state that it 'doesn't condone violence' after Will Smith hit comedian Chris Rock on stage. Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face during the Oscars on Sunday night after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair.
Referring to Pinkett Smith’s buzzcut, Rock said: “Jada, can’t wait for GI Jane 2.” Following Rock's comment, Smith walked up on stage and appeared to hit him before returning to his seat and shouting: “Keep my wife’s name out of your ******* mouth.”
Jada has previously opened up about her struggle with hair loss and alopecia. In an episode of her Facebook chat show, Red Table Talk, she said "handfuls of hair" came loose in the shower.
Read more: Will Smith hits Chris Rock on Oscars stage after joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith
Will Smith later went on to win the best actor award for film King Richard, the American biographical sports drama about the father and coach of famed tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. Accepting his best actor Oscar Smith apologised and said: “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family."
He added: “I want to apologise to the Academy, I want to apologise to all my fellow nominees." He went on to say that 'love makes you do crazy things.'
The Academy since issued a statement, posted on Twitter, which read: "The Academy does not condone violence of any form. Tonight we are delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy Awards winners, who deserve this moment of recognition from their peers and movie lovers around the world."
Back in the UK, the incident between Smith and Rock is, as expected, hitting the headlines and was a dominant topic of conversation on Monday morning's GMB with Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid.
Speaking about the incident, Richard described Rock as "rude" and "unlikable" and that he was the most "unpleasant person I’ve ever interviewed," but Susanna interjected; "I honestly think at the moment there's quite a lot of justifying of someone who just hit someone else on television and just remember, apart from the fact it's not OK to hit somebody, what is that saying to people watching."
Addressing Smith's acceptance speech where he says "love makes you do crazy things," Susanna hit back: "It's not ok to hit somebody," before they showed a clip of his speech.
The hosts went on to discuss what made Smith "snap" and Susanna later said: "I'm really struck by how many people are defending it now and I bet in 24 hours they'll have changed their view," before Andrew questioned how this will affect Smith's career.
Richard, however, argued that Rock was "dabbling his fingers in other people's souls" and a "sensitive area" due to Pinkett-Smith's alopecia battle.
