Will Smith is turning down invites from Good Morning America and The Today Show to talk about the Chris Rock incident and has decided he will spill his guts on Jada Pinkett-Smith’s Red Table Talk.
Sources close to the situation tell Radar, Will and his team have been bombarded with offers from outlets pleading with the Academy Award winner to choose them as his outlet to talk about Chris.
However, we’re told Will and Jada had a conversation where they agreed the situation will be addressed on Jada’s super-successful Facebook show.
Will skipped the press line last night after winning the Best Actor award for his role in King Richard. We’re told he even refused to talk to reporters at the afterparties.
Sources tell us Will and Jada will tape the episode as early as this week. The famous couple feels like this is the best platform for him to explain his side of things clearly — with him being invited to next year’s ceremony in limbo after he got physical with the comedian.
As Radar previously reported, Chris appeared to announce the Best Documentary Feature Film award but decided to do a set of jokes before revealing the winner.
He decided to come for Jada’s appearance by making a joke about her being bald. He said the actress was ready to appear in GI Jane 2 — a reference to the 1997 Demi Moore film that she famously shaved her head to get into the role.
The issue is Jada has been open about her struggle with alopecia — a condition that can cause an individual to lose their hair. It affects every person different and hair loss can be temporary or permanent.
Jada was not impressed with the joke and clearly Will noticed his wife being upset. He immediately sprung into action and quickly walked up the stage to Chis.
He proceeded to smack the comedian in the face, turn around, and then walk back to his seat.
Chris Rock acknowledge the smack but then continued on with handing out the award. During the commercial break, Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry walked up to talk to Will.
Will’s publicist Meredith O’Sullivan was seen doing damage control in the moments after the on-stage slap.
Chris has yet to make a public statement but declined to press charges against Will.
During his acceptance speech, Will seemed to talk about the moment telling the crowd, “I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse, and you gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you and you gotta smile and you gotta pretend like that‘s OK.”
He added, “But Richard Williams, and what I loved, thank you D. Denzel (Washington) said to me a few minutes ago, he said, “At your highest moment, be careful. That’s when the devil comes for you.”