Category Archives: Will Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith signs deal for ‘no holds barred’ memoir

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Actor will address her ‘unconventional upbringing in Baltimore’ and ‘complicated marriage’ to Will Smith in tell-all due next year

Jada Pinkett Smith is putting her experiences on record in a new tell-all memoir, the publisher Dey Street, an imprint of HarperCollins, announced on Thursday.

The “no holds barred” memoir, due next fall, will chronicle “lessons learned in the course of a difficult but riveting journey – a rollercoaster ride from the depths of suicidal depression to the heights of personal rediscovery and the celebration of authentic feminine power”.

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Chris Rock jokes about slap after Will Smith apology video

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Comedian doesn’t directly address apology onstage but says: ‘Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith ... I went to work the next day’

Comedian Chris Rock did not directly address Will Smith’s recent apology video to him when onstage in Atlanta on Friday but he did continue to make jokes about the notorious incident at the Oscars when he was slapped by the actor while presenting the awards show.

“If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims,” Rock said. “Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith ... I went to work the next day, I got kids,” he joked, according to CNN.

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Will Smith posts emotional apology for the slap: ‘I am deeply remorseful’

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Actor releases video answering questions about the incident at this year’s Oscars where he slapped Chris Rock onstage

Will Smith has posted an emotional video to his social channels expressing remorse over the Oscars slap.

The 53-year-old actor caused controversy at this year’s ceremony after he slapped Chris Rock onstage after a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and her appearance. Smith released a statement on Instagram to apologise but has been silent since.

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Will Smith banned from Oscars for 10 years after slapping Chris Rock

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Academy bars actor from all its events, condemning ‘unacceptable and harmful behavior on stage’

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board of governors has banned Will Smith from all its events, including the Oscars, for 10 years after the best actor winner slapped presenter Chris Rock on stage at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Smith has publicly apologized and resigned from the academy. The Academy’s decision on Friday comes after its president, David Rubin, decided to bring forward a board meeting scheduled for 18 April. In his letter to board members, Rubin said that Ampas rules stipulated a 15-day notice to consider suspending a membership, but after Smith’s resignation that no longer applied.

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Will Smith resigns from Academy, saying he betrayed its trust

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Actor will accept ‘any further consequences’ the body’s board considers appropriate after Oscars slap

Will Smith has resigned from Hollywood’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony, saying that he “betrayed the trust of the Academy” and will accept “any further consequences”.

In a statement released on Friday afternoon, the actor described his actions at the 94th Academy Awards as “shocking, painful, and inexcusable”.

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Chris Rock says he is ‘still processing’ Will Smith’s Oscars slap

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Comedian makes first public remarks since incident during comedy show in Boston

Chris Rock has made his first public remarks after being slapped on live television by Will Smith during Sunday’s Academy Awards, saying at a Wednesday night comedy show that he was “still processing” the incident.

At his show in Boston, his first since the Oscars and part of a pre-existing tour schedule, Rock addressed the controversy by jokingly asking the crowd, “How was your weekend?” before explaining he “did not have a lot to say” yet about that night.

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Will Smith apologizes to Chris Rock, Academy and viewers for onstage slap

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Actor says attacking the comedian was ‘out of line’ and calls violence of all kinds ‘poisonous and destructive’

Will Smith has issued an apology to Chris Rock, the Academy and viewers after slapping the comedian on stage at the 94th Academy Awards, saying he was “out of line” and that his actions were “not indicative of the man I want to be”.

The fallout from Sunday’s show continued on Monday as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences condemned Smith’s onstage assault and said it would launch an inquiry. Smith apologised to the Academy during his best actor acceptance speech, which notably didn’t include an apology to Rock.

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‘Violence instead of words’: Will Smith condemned for hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars

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Bernardine Evaristo, Keir Starmer, Kathy Griffin and others respond to incident

Author Bernardine Evaristo is among the public figures to have condemned Will Smith for hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars, saying the actor “resorted to violence instead of utilising the power of words”.

In what quickly became the bombshell moment of the ceremony, Smith struck Rock in the face after the comic made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

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Oscars 2022: Coda triumphs while Will Smith attacks Chris Rock onstage

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The drama picked up three major awards, including best picture, while best actor winner Will Smith had a viral confrontation

Coda has been named this year’s best picture at an Oscars ceremony that featured an unusual confrontation between Will Smith and Chris Rock.

The Apple TV+ drama, bought from 2021’s Sundance film festival for a record-breaking $25m, became the first film from a streamer to win the award. It’s a remake of French film La Famille Bélier, focusing on the only hearing member of a deaf family.

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Screen Actors Guild awards 2022: Squid Game, Will Smith and Coda win big

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Netflix phenomenon and Apple’s deaf family drama make history at this year’s SAG awards ceremony

The indie drama Coda has won big at this year’s Screen Actors Guild awards, picking up best ensemble in a movie and best supporting actor for Troy Kotsur, who is the first ever deaf actor to win an individual SAG award.

The Apple drama about a deaf family was bought for $25m from last year’s Sundance film festival and has also been nominated for three Academy Awards, including best picture.

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Golden Globes: The Power of the Dog and Succession win at celebrity-free ceremony

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Jane Campion’s Netflix drama and HBO hit triumph as stars distance themselves from Hollywood Foreign Press Association

The Power of the Dog and Succession were the big winners at an unusual, stripped-back Golden Globes.

Traditionally, the ceremony is a glitzy telecast with A-listers in attendance but after a year of controversies surrounding diversity and amoral practices, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association lost its footing in the industry, with publicity firms, studios and celebrities choosing to distance themselves.

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Golden Globes 2022 tries to do better as Lady Gaga brings the outrage

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After a year of criticism over diversity, the Golden Globes have come up with a decent slate of nominees, with Gaga surely the favourite for best actress

• Full list of 2020 nominations

The Golden Globes nomination list has been announced with a solemn introduction from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s president Helen Hoehne, to the effect that the Globes’ much-criticised controlling body was “trying to be better” and that its constituent membership was more diverse than at any other time in its history. Which is better, I suppose, than being less diverse than at any time in its history.

At any rate, leading the pack are Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s unashamed heartwarmer about the home town of his early childhood, with seven nominations and Jane Campion’s stark, twisty western-Gothic psychodrama The Power of the Dog, set in 1920s Montana with Benedict Cumberbatch as the troubled, angry cattleman who begins a toxic duel with his new sister-in-law played by Kirsten Dunst and her sensitive teenage son, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee.

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Will Smith: now Hollywood royalty, the star’s rise has been far from painless

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From Fresh Prince to King Richard, personal upsets have so far failed to derail his childhood goal to be the world’s biggest film star

There’s a seemingly offhand quality which is central to the appeal of Will Smith: an innate magnetism and loose-limbed, casual coolness. But the career path from teenage rap artist to TV actor to superstar status was anything but effortless; it was the result of a self-described “psychotic” work ethic and meticulous, perhaps even obsessive, planning.

For a while, at least, he was one of the most bankable film actors on the planet – a planet that he saved on a regular basis in summer blockbusters. But while that kind of success rate is hard to sustain, Smith has shown himself to be extremely adaptable compared to his contemporaries. From film actor/musician, he has evolved into a multimedia phenomenon. He has adopted a very marketable openness and accessibility, and embraced personal failures as teachable moments.

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Where does the Oscar race stand after this year’s big festivals?

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With a more normal awards season on the way, it’s time to sift through what’s been loved and hated and look forward to what performances could make an impact

As we all edge slowly closer to something vaguely sorta kinda resembling a loose idea of normality, so too does Hollywood, its relatively fixed annual schedule going from blurry to a bit less blurry. After an almost normal summer, the fall festivals followed and while they weren’t quite back up to snuff (some had a semi-virtual element, some big films were notably missing), there was a dramatic improvement from 2020 and, importantly, they were pulled off with very few infections.

Related: ‘We want people to freak out’: inside Hollywood’s Museum of Motion Pictures

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‘Brexit – We’re making a mess of it’: mashup artists lampoon Britain’s leaders

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In a satire of the 2016 Brexit vote, mashup artists lampoon Britain's leaders in a video which re-edits their words to say the European Union referendum was dumb and Prime Minister Theresa May is making a mess of Brexit. The June 23 vote took many investors and chief executives by surprise, triggering the deepest political and financial turmoil in Britain since World War Two and the biggest ever one-day fall in sterling against the dollar.