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Will
Smith
posts an
apology
video
for
slapping
Chris
Rock
By MARK
KENNEDY
apnews.com
NEW YORK
- Will
Smith
has
again
apologized
to Chris
Rock for
slapping
him
during
the
Oscar
telecast
in a new
video,
saying
that his
behavior
was
“unacceptable”
and that
he had
reached
out to
the
comedian
to
discuss
the
incident
but was
told
Rock
wasn’t
ready.
“There
is no
part of
me that
thinks
that was
the
right
way to
behave
in that
moment,”
Smith
said in
the
under-six
minute
video
posted
online
Friday.
“I am
deeply
remorseful
and I’m
trying
to be
remorseful
without
being
ashamed
of
myself.”
To Rock,
he said:
“I’m
here
whenever
you’re
ready to
talk.”
Smith,
seated
in a
polo
shirt
and
white
ball
cap,
spoke
directly
to a
camera,
answering
pre-selected
questions
about
his
behavior
at the
March 27
Academy
Awards,
when he
slapped
presenter
Rock
after
the
comedian
made a
reference
about
the
hairstyle
of Jada
Pinkett
Smith,
Smith’s
wife.
Smith
also
apologized
to
Rock’s
family
and
especially
his
mother,
Rosalie,
who was
horrified
to see
her son
hurt and
told US
Weekly
that,
“When he
slapped
Chris,
he
slapped
all of
us. He
really
slapped
me.”
Smith
also
apologized
to Tony
Rock,
Chris’
younger
brother.
“I
didn’t
realize
how many
people
got hurt
in that
moment,”
Smith
said.
Neither
the
apology
or
timing
impressed
crisis
and PR
expert
Eric
Schiffer,
who
called
it
“bizarre,
strange
and
grossly
over-rehearsed.”
“It came
across
like he
was
doing a
confessional
in some
closed
room in
a
foreign
country
in order
to
escape
the
regime,”
said
Schiffer,
chairman
and CEO
of
Patriarch
Equity
and
chairman
of
Reputation
Management
Consultants.
“It’s
just not
the way
to get
out of
the
septic
muck he
put
himself
into
because,
once
again,
it
started
being
about
him and
it’s
still
about
him.”
In the
video,
Smith
also
apologized
to his
family
“for the
heat
that I
brought
on all
of us”
and his
fellow
Oscar
nominees
to have
“stolen
and
tarnished
your
moment.”
He
mentioned
Questlove
by name;
it was
the
musician-director’s
documentary
win for
“Summer
of Soul
(…Or,
When the
Revolution
Could
Not Be
Televised)”
that was
interrupted
by the
slap.
Rock was
on stage
to
present
the
documentary
award.
Smith
also
said his
wife did
nothing
to
encourage
his
slap.
“Jada
had
nothing
to do
with
it,” he
said. “I
made a
choice
on my
own.”
Pinkett
Smith
has said
that she
has
alopecia
areata,
a
hair-loss
disorder.
Following
the
altercation,
the
motion
picture
academy
banned
Smith
from
attending
the
Oscars
or any
other
academy
event
for 10
years.
Smith
apologized
to Rock
in a
statement
after
the
Oscars,
saying
he was
“out of
line and
I was
wrong.”
“I’m
sorry
really
isn’t
sufficient,”
Smith
said in
the
video,
adding
that he
is
hurting
because
he
hasn’t
lived up
to fans’
impressions.
“Disappointing
people
is my
central
trauma.”
Many had
speculated
that
Smith
would
appear
on
camera
to
discuss
the slap
first on
Pinkett
Smith’s
online
series
“Red
Table
Talk,”
but he
chose to
do it in
a social
media
video
post
without
any
follow-up
questions
or
surprise
queries.
“It just
had the
reek of
a
fabricated
attempt
to be
real.
And
that’s
not what
he
wanted
to
accomplish,
nor was
it
persuasive,”
said
Schiffer.
“I do
wish him
well and
hopefully
he will
find the
right
path.
That
path is
really
about
humbleness
and not
about
ego and
self.”
___
Mark
Kennedy
is at
http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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