WILL SMITH’S REAL CRIME: NOT THINKING ABOUT SERENA, VENUS FIRST

By stooping to Chris Rock’s repulsive level with a smackdown, the actor undercut the reason he was at the Oscars — to honor the Williams sisters and their father with the movie he made about them

     Finally, they were finding peace and fulfillment, not that the price of gratification ever should be so prohibitive. They were the queens of the Oscars, Serena and Venus Williams, waiting in the Dolby Theater for their cinematic coronation. This was the night when the tale of their upbringing, through the eyes of their father, would be celebrated via the movie star who brought the narrative to screens big and hand-held, Will Smith.

     They opened the show with an introduction of Beyonce, who performed an Academy-nominated song from “King Richard.’’ She was on a lime-colored outdoor stage down the 110 freeway in Compton, where the Williams sisters grew up as Black girls breaking through the bigoted curtain of tennis. Then they sat together, enjoying the return of the festivities to a Hollywood stage, dabbing tears with the rest of us when “CODA,’’ the drama about a deaf family, piled up the gold statuettes and made the world feel good again.

     “This is for the Deaf community, the CODA community and the disabled community,’’ said best supporting actor Troy Kotsur, the first male deaf actor to win an Oscar.

     The sisters were proud. They were excited. They were ready to celebrate their life journey — so often misunderstood and misrepresented — as millions watched.

     Until Chris Rock came out from under his rock — who knew he was still around? — and told a tasteless joke that made the world feel ugly again.

     That quickly, Serena and Venus were caught in the cultural crossfire of what is fair material for a comedian and how a famous husband should react when his wife is the target of a low blow. Smith, sitting near the stage with wife Jada Pinkett Smith, was outraged as Rock dipped into an old, needless and senselessly disgusting bit — mocking her bald hairstyle, disregarding an alopecia condition that she revealed four years ago.

     “Jada, I love you. ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it, all right?’’ said Rock, revisiting a 25-year-old movie in which Demi Moore shaves her head.

     Smith snapped, charged the stage and smacked Rock in the face with a right-handed, open-palm slap. In the still photos circulating virally, Rock has the stony look of a boxing tomato-can who wasn’t ready for the haymaker. Should Smith have hit him? No. A better lesson, for kids everywhere, would have been to confront Rock and use smarter language to combat repulsive words. That way, he would have defended his wife from an asshole without stooping to his level.

     Instead, Smith lowered himself and provided fodder for Fox News and every media machine that lives to squeeze ratings from such a high-profile, Black-on-Black dispute. He had every right to be angry. He had no right to hijack the show from the “CODA’’ cast, from all the winners, from all the performers and presenters, from everyone trying to embrace the Oscars as the streaming likes of Apple and Netflix disrupt the industry, muddle the future of movies and send box-office numbers plummeting.

     Above all, Smith had no right to dampen the glory of Serena and Venus Williams and their family. What was he thinking? He begged them to make the movie. He swore he would do right by them. Now, he was pulling them into yet another controversy with a clown comic, and this time, they were bystanders tossed into a mess by ill-behaving men. They’ve made their own headlines through the years, Serena with her temper tantrums, but I went to bed feeling sorry for them.

     “Will Smith just smacked the s— out of me,” said Rock, continuing the show after shaking off the blow.

     “Keep my wife's name out your f— mouth!” Smith shouted from his seat.

     “Wow, dude," Rock said. "It was a 'G.I. Jane' joke."

     “Keep my wife's name out your f— mouth," Smith repeated.

     A jerk to the very end — and this should be the end of whatever career he had left — Rock cracked to a stunned audience, “That was the greatest night in the history of television.’’ Actually, it was a sad commentary on the uptight condition of an America cracking under racial politics served up by shows such as the Oscars, which should provide fun entertainment but have us keeping score on how much humor comes at the expense of Whites and Blacks. Oscars producer Will Packer, who should be fired for allowing Rock’s joke to reach the air, tweeted smugly afterward, “Welp…I said it wouldn’t be boring #Oscars.’’

     As expected, Smith won the Oscar for best actor. The raging debate is whether he should be forced to relinquish the statuette, in that his assault of Rock violated the conduct code of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy tweeted on its official Twitter account: “The Academy does not condone violence of any form.’’ But just as Rock chose not to file a battery complaint with the Los Angeles police department, Smith should keep his award. By punishing him, the Academy only would further punish the Williams family. As it is, they’ve dealt with a foolish comment by director Jane Campion, who won an Oscar for “The Power of the Dog’’ and apologized for saying at a recent function, “Serena and Venus, you are such marvels. However, you do not play against the guys like I have to.’’ The show-business drama makes the tennis crowd look tame.

     Besides, wasn’t a tearful apology during Smith’s acceptance speech more than enough? Wasn’t it enough to bare his soul to the world when he could have run and hid? He’s being trashed on social media, with some demanding he be canceled and others defending him. Howard Stern, who makes a lucrative living with cruel insults, said Smith’s attack is “a sign of great mental illness when you can’t control your impulse. Not only that, it was hardly an insulting joke.’’ If anyone should be canceled, it’s Chris Rock. This doesn’t happen if he paused to think before firing. 

     “I'm being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people," said Smith, after receiving a standing ovation. “I know to do what we do, you’ve got to be able to take abuse, you’ve got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business you’ve got to be able to have people disrespecting you. And you gotta smile and you've got to pretend like that’s okay.

     “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family. In this time in my life, in this moment, I’m overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world. I want to be a vessel for love. I want to be an ambassador of that kind of love and care and concern. I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.’’

     He also apologized to Serena and Venus. So far, the only reaction from the family came on Instagram, where Serena posted a selfie video reacting in shocked silence, then said she had to sit down and put her “drink down.’’ A drink or two probably was the best way to get through the experience.

     The world will move on to the next incident. The question is what we learn from it. Let’s stop insulting celebrities at awards shows designed to honor them. Let’s not slap those who slur us, tempting as it is, especially in front of a global audience. Let’s not allow Hollywood to depict us if it can’t behave at the party. And let Hollywood be represented not by hotheads but the dignified likes of Denzel Washington, who intervened to calm down the Not-So-Fresh Prince before a riot broke out.

     “At your highest moment, be careful,’’ Washington told him. “That’s when the devil comes for you.’’

     Two girls from Compton, who have overcome racism and classism to become American treasures, didn’t deserve the visit Sunday night.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.