Oscars Pull Out All The Stops To Thwart Will Smith Copycats At 2023 Ceremony

The Oscars are just a few weeks away, and people are starting to bring up last year's notorious slap. ICYMI, Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's hair loss due to alopecia. This caused Will Smith to walk onstage and give the comedian a slap that shocked the audience and the world. The "Aladdin" actor continued to yell, "Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth!" from his seat.

After the incident, people wondered why the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" actor was able to stay in the audience. It was reported that the Academy asked Rock if he was okay with Smith still being in the audience, which brought up even more questions. Colin Jost even questioned the Academy's decision to let the actor stay in the building during a "Weekend Update" segment.

President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Janet Yang addressed the Academy's response to the slap at a luncheon, reported by Variety. "What happened onstage was fully unacceptable and the response from our organization was inadequate," she said. "We learned from this that the Academy must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions, and particularly in times of crisis you must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and for our industry. You should and can expect no less from us going forward." And it seems that the Academy is holding to that statement for this year's award show.

Bill Kramer, the new CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, recently revealed that the Academy is revamping its crisis management and protocol for the upcoming Oscars. "We have a whole crisis team, something we've never had before, and many plans in place," he told Time, adding that having Jimmy Kimmel as the host will also help due to his experience in live television. "It is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we're planning for just in case it does happen."

Kramer then explained how he believes the crisis team and plans will help in case the Oscars slap 2.0 happens. "Because of last year, we've opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars," he said. "You have to have the teams and frameworks in place and the processes in place, to come together to figure things out quickly."

Although Will Smith is currently serving a 10-year ban from attending the award show due to slapping Chris Rock last year, he has recently joked about it on his social media. He dueted a TikTok video where the user stated that a person can ask material objects questions. At the end of the video, Smith reached over and grabbed the Oscar trophy he won last year for "King Richard," proceeding to ask it a question.