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Will Smith has documented history of jealous, volatile behavior that’s long been ignored by Hollywood

March 31, 2022 | | Print Article

We may never know what really possessed actor Will Smith to respond to a bad joke by stomping onstage at the Oscars and slapping comedian Chris Rock in front of the world, but if a pattern of past behavior is any indication, it may have something to do with a jealous and slap-happy nature — one it would appear that Hollywood has been ignoring for quite some time now.

A clip of Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, appearing on “E Hormiguero,” a popular Spanish Talk Show, in 2010 has resurfaced as awkward tapes are wont to do in situations such as this, and it is once again making the rounds on social media.

In it, host Pablo Motos compliments Pinkett Smith’s “beautiful” looks and successful career when, much to the audience’s delight, Smith interjects in another display of possessive machismo and warns Motos in Spanish to “be careful.”

“Pablo, be careful with the words you use for my wife, okay?” Smith cautioned, signaling with his hand for Motos to back off.

Flirting with Jada seems to be a recurring trigger for Smith, who, in November of last year, expressed his “raging jealousy” over his wife’s friendship with the late rapper/icon Tupac Shakur.

“Though they were never intimate, their love for each other is legendary — they defined ‘ride or die,'” Smith wrote in his memoir, Will. “In the beginning of our relationship, my mind was tortured by their connection. He was PAC! and I was me.”

If he is the jealous sort, Smith’s unconventional marriage can not have made things easy on the popular actor.

On the talk show she hosts with her mother and daughter, “Red Table Talk,” Pinkett Smith, in 2020, spent four minutes discussing her infidelity with her defensive husband, explaining that “feeling good” with another man wasn’t a “transgression,” it was a healing journey.

“I actually don’t look at it as a transgression at all,” Pinkett Smith said to her jealous husband’s face. “Through that particular journey, I learned so much about myself, and was able to really confront a lot of emotional immaturity, emotional insecurity, and I was really able to do some really deep healing.”

 

It’s a journey that may have made Pinkett Smith feel better about herself, but clearly, Will Smith’s emotional maturity and security still needs some work, preferably before he impulsively smacks someone else.

Because, as it turns out, this isn’t the first time Smith has slapped someone at an awards show.

As we’ve already shown, the internet is forever, and another video — this one from 2012 — shows Smith smacking Ukrainian comedian Vitalii Sediuk in the face during a red carpet event in Moscow for Men in Black III.

Sediuk, who, according to the New York Post, has been arrested and served with restraining orders for his outlandish antics — was posing as a reporter when he attempted to kiss Smith on both cheeks, calling it a “traditional Ukrainian greeting.”

Smith shoved the comic back and sneered, “What the hell is your problem, buddy?” before backhanding him across the face.

And, as with his assault on Chris Rock, Smith faced no immediate repercussions. Later, down the press line, Smith told a reporter, “He tried to kiss me on the mouth … he’s lucky I didn’t sucker-punch him. Oh, I said that on camera — you know, it’s all good.”

And if all of this isn’t enough to keep Smith’s publicists spinning for the media for weeks, a video from last year shows the actor giving a group of kids a lesson in the art of fake slapping.

Hollywood was almost universally mortified by Smith’s performance at this year’s Oscars, though, as American Wire News reported, some celebs decided to delete their initial reactions to the “slap heard ’round the world.”

Those who have shown any support for Smith —  such as Piers Morgan, who appeared on Fox News’s “The Five” and pointed out that the Academy, which is now meeting to discuss the possibility of stripping Smith of his Oscar for his starring role in King Richard, did not react this strongly to convicted pedophile Roman Polanski and notorious Hollywood sex offender, Harvey Weinstein — have been quickly shut down.

“The idea that we’re going to take Will Smith’s Best Actor Oscar for a brilliant performance in a great movie. … let’s just get some perspective here,” Morgan stated.

The comment sent Five co-host Jesse Watters into a scolding rant, in which he said he was “ashamed” of Morgan.

“I’m ashamed of what you just said because you of all people should have thicker skin,” Watters shot back. “If someone makes a crack about you and you’re that successful and your wife is sitting there and she’s that successful, it’s a roast. Take the joke and move on.”

“Moving on” is exactly what comedian Chris Rock — the victim in this situation, in case anyone has forgotten — is trying to do.

At his first standup show since the incident, Rock took the stage Wednesday and was met with a three-minute standing ovation, according to Fox News.

“I’m still kind of processing what happened,” Rock told the cheering crowd. “At some point I’ll talk about that s—, and it will be serious, and it will be funny.”

Melissa Fine
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