Will Smith banned from Oscars for 10 years over slap

Will Smith has been barred from attending the Oscars and other Academy events for ten years after slapping comedian Chris Rock during the ceremony.

According to the Academy, the 94^th Academy Awards were “overshadowed by the repugnant and harmful behaviour we saw Mr. Smith show on stage.”

Smith has resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after apologising for his actions.

The actor slammed Rock for making a joke about his wife’s shaved head, which is the result of alopecia, a hair-loss condition.

He won the best actor prize for his part in King Richard, in which he played the father of tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, less than an hour later.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hosts the awards presentation, had a virtual meeting on Friday to discuss disciplinary action.

The Academy said in a statement that the restriction was aimed at protecting performers and visitors while also “restoring trust in the Academy.”

After he resigned, the academy’s disciplinary examination of the incident, which had been planned for April 18, was accelerated.

Few people have ever resigned from the Academy. Four members have been removed for sexual misconduct allegations: producer Harvey Weinstein, actor Bill Cosby, director Roman Polanski, and cinematographer Adam Kimmel, while actor Carmine Caridi was expelled in 2004 for pirating screener movies handed to him.

Smith will face “huge consequences,” according to Whoopi Goldberg, a member of the Academy’s board of governors, but “we’re not going to take that Oscar away from him.”

In addition to the Academy’s steps, at least two studios, Sony and Netflix, have put Smith’s projects on hold.

Rock, who started his latest stand-up comedy tour shortly after the Oscars, has remained silent on the incident.

At a recent event, he told fans that he was “still kind of processing what occurred” and that he would speak about the incident “at some point.”