Will Smith has apologised to Chris Rock after he slapped him at the Oscars, saying his behaviour was "unacceptable and inexcusable".
"I would like to publicly apologise to you, Chris," he said in a statement. "I was out of line and I was wrong."
It comes after the Oscars film academy condemned Smith over the incident and announced a formal review.
The star slapped Rock in the face on stage after the comic made a joke about the actor's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Rock had taken aim at Pinkett Smith's shaved head, a result of the hair-loss condition alopecia.
Shortly after, Smith picked up the first Oscar of his career for playing the father of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams in King Richard.
"Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive," Smith said in the statement, which was posted to Instagram.
"My behaviour at last night's Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally."
Smith apologised directly to Rock, stating he was "out of line". He also apologised to the Academy and the Williams family.
"I deeply regret that my behaviour has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us," he wrote.
Prior to Smith's apology, the organisation behind the Oscars said in a statement that it "condemns the actions" of Smith.
"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," it said.
Crisis management
By Steven McIntosh, entertainment reporter in Los Angeles
Will Smith and his PR team will be hoping his apology will be enough to salvage his career and his relationship with the Academy, and douse the blaze of publicity surrounding Sunday night's altercation.
His statement has been written with extreme care. Smith is careful with his language, explaining why he reacted the way he did, without trying to excuse it.
But his apology does not mean this story is over. Apart from anything else, Rock will eventually have to comment publicly too. The signs so far suggest he intends to shrug the episode off with good humour.
The comedian declined to file a police report, and it was reported that he joked backstage after the punch: "That's the only time you get hit by Muhammad Ali and it doesn't leave a scratch," referring to Smith's role in the boxer's biopic.
But even when the headlines about the punch eventually start to fade, Sunday's events will follow those involved for years to come. It would be impossible for any journalist or chat show host to interview either of them while they're plugging a new film without bringing it up.
Meanwhile, the Academy's Board of Governors is reportedly set to meet on Wednesday to discuss whether or not any further action should be taken against Smith.
Some had suggested that his Oscar could be revoked, but that is unlikely. He could still receive a gentler sanction such as having his Academy membership suspended, but that may now be less likely following his apology.
Only one thing is certain - worldwide appetite for this story remains high, and fans will be interested to see where it goes next.
Rock's joke referred to the 1997 film GI Jane, in which Demi Moore played the title role with a severe buzzcut.
Pinkett Smith rolled her eyes at the comment, while Smith appeared to initially laugh and clap his hands before he was seen on stage, walking up to Rock.
The comedian looked stunned in the immediate aftermath of the incident, but told the audience: "That was the greatest night in the history of television."
The Los Angeles Police Department later told Variety that Rock had "declined to file a police report" following the event.
After the incident, Rock handed over the best documentary prize, which was the reason he was on stage.
He is yet to publicly comment further on what happened.
Accepting the Oscar for best actor for King Richard soon after, Smith said Richard Williams was a "fierce defender of his family" and that he himself was "being called on" in his life "to love people and to protect people".
"Art imitates life," he said. "I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things."
He ended it saying he hoped the Academy would invite him back.
24brains: all in the name of revenue generation, people should endangered their lives abi? I think Soludo should thread with caution on IPOB issues.
i see nothing wrong with resting on mondays to observe an historical stuff. i would prefer he co-operate with the wishes of the people than enforce for self gains.
note that i am not in support of violence, insecurity or immoral acts.
You are in support of violence, insecurity or immoral acts because you condemned the person that is trying to stop it, but you did not condemn the people that are carrying out the "violence, insecurity or immoral acts".
In fact, look at the way you supported them by trying to deflect attention to something else. This thread is about ending the madness of violence in the South-East. Why don't you create another thread about your hisbah if that is what interests you? Why are you trying to derail this thread?
24brains: just shut up already!!! Tell that to isbah police in the northern region who destroys alcoholic drinks and still expect revenue from the same drinks shared with them. Is that not affecting their economy too and subjecting the people to hardship and pleasure deprivation?
Expect heavy security in Anambra soon, Soludo tells residents
Ikenna Obianeri 27 March 2022
Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has said that with effect from Monday, April 4, 2022, all markets, schools, banks, and motor parks around the state, will resume normal activities.
Speaking at the Women Development Centre, Awka, on Saturday, Soludo expressed unhappiness that Anambra and indeed the whole of the South-East were losing billions of naira in revenue as a result of the boycott of activities on Mondays.
He warned that the Monday sit-at-home must end as he cautioned the market leaders and relevant authorities to ensure compliance.
The warning is coming a few days after some unknown gunmen sent letters to some Anambra communities warning them of the dangers of disobeying the sit-at-home order on Monday.
Governor Soludo said, “Every Monday sit-at-home must end in Anambra. Normal activities must resume in earnest. With the Monday sit-at-home, the South-East economy is sinking gradually. When you boycott activities in Anambra or any other part of the region, normal activities are going on in other parts of the country. When normal activities are going on in other places, the person or persons you want to show your anger is not actually feeling what you are doing. You are only destroying your home.
“It is high time we came back to our senses and do the right thing. We have proper ways and procedures to express our agitations than to engage in activities that can only destroy our home. In other parts of the country, schoolchildren attend classes for five days; but in Anambra and other parts of the South-East, it is only four days. At the end of the day, our children will go into common or unity exams with other children from other parts of the country.
“Today, many businesses and investors are relocating to Asaba and other places. This is killing our economy and we cannot afford to continue that way.
“On our part as government, we are mobilizing security agencies, including the armed forces and informal security organizations to take charge, and to move all over the state to ensure that lives and property of our people are protected. Very soon, our people will start seeing heavy presence of the security operatives.”
“Therefore, with effect from Monday, April 4, 2022, every school, bank, market, motor pack, and other human activities will resume in earnest. Any market leader, who fails to mobilize traders in his market will be sanctioned; and any trader who fails to open his shop for business every Monday will also face sanction. School heads and operators of financial institutions should also take note.
YourhealthNG2: Point well made. Just that at same time you're giving the nonentity more publicity, which is the oxygen he craves for.
All you need to do is go to his Twitter account and look at the responses now and compare them with the responses before I started creating threads about him and you'll know that this is not what he craved for.
Where, previously the responses to his posts have been by mindless followers who praise and hail his hate speeches, now people are calling him out, confronting him and petitioning Twitter to ban him. That's the difference.
Most of the people that are replying now, did not previously know that he was the source of the unknown gunmen. Now they know and are willing to take action to stop him. That's the difference.
My God! I didn't read the useless comments by that fellow until someone quoted him just now. So I am now a "Known Fulani person on here"? Isn't that wonderful?
When a brainless fool is causing death and hardship to millions of people, while he is enjoying peace in a far away land, when he is profiting from the destruction that he is causing and people are trying to cover it up and pretend that he does not exist, when his supporters are blaming "Fulani herdsmen" for the death and destruction that he freely admits that he is causing, then it is my job to shine a light on it so that something will be done about the maniac.
All those that are trying to deflect or cover it up so that the maniac can continue sending his murderous terrorists to kill people with the excuse that they are enforcing a useless sit at home have failed. I will continue to call out the terrorist and expose their murderous activities until something is done to bring it to an end.
There's absolutely nothing that his followers and apologists can do to stop me.
As usual he has started his fund raising activities. Money is one of the core motivations for this nonsense and it is also one of the core reasons for the split.
Most of the people that are supporting Simon Ekpa and threatening people that are cautioning him do not live in the South-East. Many of them do not even live in Nigeria. Yet they are donating a lot of money to finance his terrorist activities and destroy the lives of people living in the South-East.
naptu2: OK, I'll explain this. I'm not going to go too deep into details, but I'll provide enough explanation for you to understand. You can go back to the predictions I made in 2020 and 2021 for a better understanding of the situation.
Nnamdi Kanu was suddenly arrested in 2021 and his arrest threatened to put Ipob in a rudderless situation. Several decisions were therefore taken in order to keep the group active while Kanu was in detention.
One of the decisions was to get a new presenter for programmes on Radio Biafra. There was someone that Nnamdi Kanu had previously endorsed and asked his followers to listen to. That person was Simon Ekpa. He became the presenter on Radio Biafra and he made fiery and hate filled speeches just as Kanu had done before his arrest.
There was also a structure that was put in place to run the organisation in the absence of Kanu. That structure was the Directorate of State (DOS). The DOS was headed by Chika Edoziem.
As time went on, the DOS felt that Simon Ekpa had deviated from what they wanted him to do and so they sacked him from being a presenter on Radio Biafra. However, Simon Ekpa claimed that it was the DOS that had deviated from the Biafra restoration mission. There was an insane exchange of allegations between supporters of the DOS and supporters of Simon Ekpa. This is what I said that I won't go into. I'm not going to reproduce the allegations here, but you can find them yourself if you search the Internet (it's mainly about money, calling each other prostitutes, accusing each other of selling out and control of ESN). It was a serious war that mainly took place on the Internet, but sometimes also occurred on the streets.
Simon Ekpa is more social media savvy and he built up a huge amount of support. Apart from YouTube and Radio Biafra, members of the DOS do not actively use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, but Simon Ekpa is everywhere. He is also an extreme extremist and and his threats, bigotry and fiery speeches appeals to some youths and so he developed a huge following. The DOS is trying to be a little more conciliatory because Nnamdi Kanu is in detention, but this has given Simon Ekpa the opportunity to claim that they've sold out.
Sometime ago Simon Ekpa claimed that all the people that claim to speak for Nnamdi Kanu are not really speaking for him. He said that Kanu is being detained by the DSS and so they don't really know what are his own thoughts and opinions and what are lies and tricks being used by the DSS to deceive people. Therefore, he claimed that the Biafran struggle is on autopilot. This has made people to nickname his supporters as "Autopiloters".
Just like Nnamdi Kanu, Simon Ekpa raises a lot of money anytime he does his broadcasts and part of that money is used to fund the ESN training camps and terrorist activities in the South-East. He often plays Nnamdi Kanu's speech in which Kanu endorsed Simon Ekpa and told people to listen to Ekpa, before his broadcasts.
The battle between Simon Ekpa and the DOS continues. This morning the DOS released a press statement that Simon Ekpa is not a member of Ipob. This was his response.
The leader of the Autopiloters faction of Ipob, Simon Ekpa, has declared a sit at home civil disobedience protest tomorrow across Eastern Nigeria. During his broadcast this evening he declared that the only thing that can stop the sit at home protest is the release of Nnamdi Kanu.
He stated that Governor Soludo is an ordinary criminal and that he cannot stop the sit at home protest. He said that there's no difference between Governor Soludo and Hushpuppi
Celebrities › Re: Will Smith Apologises To Chris Rock After Oscars Slap by naptu2(op): 6:55am On Mar 29, 2022
