DJ Jazzy Jeff has become the latest artist to wade into the Will Smith Oscars slap debate, defending the actor for his “human” reaction.Last month, Smith struck Chris Rock on-stage during the Academy Awards ceremony following a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. Following numerous apologies over the incident, Smith resigned from the Academy and described his actions as “shocking, painful, and inexcusable,” before being banned from the Oscars for a decade.Since the incident, Smith has been condemned by a number of celebrities including A$AP Rocky, Janet Hubert, Jim Carrey, Amy Schumer and Zoë Kravitz, while the likes of Denzel Washington and UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak have supported him.Speaking at a live event in Chicago, Jazzy Jeff – who formed the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince with Smith in 1986 and won two Grammys for ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ and ‘Summertime’ before they split in 1994 – defended his former bandmate.“Don’t get it twisted that it was something he was proud of.
Ahead Of Oscars Tribute, Sidney Poitier’s Daughter Marks His Legacy: “He Changed Minds And Hearts As To What It Meant To Be Black”
27.03.2022 - 14:11 / deadline.com
Ahead of the tribute to Sidney Poitier during this year’s Oscars ceremony, his daughter Sydney has expressed her pride in her father’s legacy of “changing minds and changing hearts as to what it meant to be Black.”
This year’s acting categories see four actors of colour included in the nominations – Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Ariana DeBose (the first Afro-Latina actor to be recognised) and Aunjanue Ellis – nearly six decades after Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win an acting Oscar, for his role of Lilies in the Field in 1964.
Sydney Poitier said that, prior to her father’s arrival, Black actors’ roles had been limited and one-dimensional “that didn’t really show the breadth of the Black experience at all,” and she credited her father for bringing another version of what it meant to be Black to white America.
She told the BBC that her father had been “the right person at the right time.” She said, “White people and Black people were buying tickets to see him. It was a huge cultural shift.”
This year’s nominations see Denzel Washington and Will Smith recognised in the Best Actor category. Washington previously became the second Black actor to win the award in 2002, almost 40 years after Poitier.
Poitier died on January 6 of this year. Tributes from across the world recognised not just his acting career, starring in such classics as A Raisin in the Sun, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and To Sir With Love, but also his unceasing calls for civil rights, racial equality and human dignity. Barack Obama called him “a singular talent” who epitomized dignity and grace and who opened doors for a generation of actors.
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assault of Chris Rock onstage at the ceremony.Smith shocked everyone when he stepped onstage and slapped presenter Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke at the expense of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. During the commercial break after the slap, Washington and Tyler Perry were seen talking with Smith and seemingly encouraging the actor ahead of his first Oscar win for Best Actor.Washington appeared with pastor and author T.D. Jakes at the author’s Leadership Summit on Saturday for a conversation about his career and faith, and he addressed what happened at the Oscars.
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