Will Smith is Back After Slapgate, and He Should Be Thanking Rihanna for That
It's been seven month after the Slapgate rocked the Oscars broadcast in March when Will Smith smacked Chris Rock onstage over the comedian's comments about Smith's wife haircut.
He later apologized but was naturally cancelled. Now, hold your breath – it looks like the 'cancelling' has been cancelled altogether.
The 54-year old Smith, who staged a private screening of his new Apple slavery drama Emancipation enjoyed support from a bunch of his Hollywood pals with Tyler Perry, Rihanna, Dave Chappelle and Kenya Barris to name a few. Now, Rihanna lending her star power to an event like this? Could it mean that Will Smith is officially back in Hollywood's good graces?
"This was the hardest movie I've ever made. Blood, Sweat & Tears… LITERALLY! Shoutout to Apple who doubled (and tripled) down on their commitment to deliver this epic story to the world," Smith himself admitted.
Will Smith posted a group selfie on Instagram this Monday featuring a gang of his high-profile friends during the screening. One of the followers commented on the post saying "Love Chapelle supporting Will. People need to stop cancelling people."
It was only in September that Dave Chappelle commented on the infamous slap while on Chappelle and Rock's joint comedy tour in Liverpool, England. He said, "Will did the impression of a perfect person for 30 years, and he ripped his mask off and showed us he was as ugly as the rest of us." He also added that "Whatever the consequences are… I hope he doesn't put his mask back on again, and lets his real face breathe." (via Telegraph)
Right after the slapping incident at the Oscars in March Will Smith had to face an avalanche of comments from the Hollywood A-listers.
"Let me tell you something, it's a very bad practice to walk up on stage and physically assault a Comedian," tweeted comedian Kathy Griffin. "Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters."
Star Wars star Mark Hamill tweeted that "Stand-up comics are very adept at handling hecklers. Violent physical assault... not so much."
Following the scandal the Academy issued a brief statement condoning "violence of any form" and later banned Smith from the Oscars gala and other events for a decade.