The internet has been abuzz with news and developments regarding the now-infamous slap that took place at the Academy Awards last Sunday. While there’s been plenty on Will Smith’s side, from personal apologies to his resignation from the Academy, there’s been less from Chris Rock.
That’s due in part to him still having shows to perform and a job to do. Though he’s faced some heckling, he’s handled it with grace.
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Chris Rock’s name has been all over the news this week.
He received quite the unexpected treatment this past Sunday in the form of a slap from friend and fellow actor Will Smith after Rock made a joke regarding his wife. The rest of the week has been spent listening to other celebrity’s opinions about the matter and Smith’s own statements regarding it.
But, hey, Rock has other stuff to do in the meantime.
He’d already had live shows booked long before this all happened as part of his Ego Death world tour, shows he still attended. Though sources say he and Smith had already made up , it seems that fans still consider there to be a grudge, and chose to bring that to his stand-up.
While performing at Boston’s Wilbur Theater on Thursday, a heckler piped up.
He shouted “[Expletive] Will Smith” from the crowd, you’ll have to fill that one in yourself, but Rock was quick to brush it off with a, “No, no, no, no, no.”
This came after an incident on Wednesday, his first show since the Oscars, where he gave the audience a heads up that he wouldn’t be addressing what happened.
Not that they listened. He was met with some of the crowd chanting for him to sue Smith.
During the show, he said, “I don’t have a bunch of [expletive] about what happened. I had like a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kinda processing what happened. So at some point, I’ll talk about that [expletive]. So I’m gonna tell some jokes. It’s nice to be out.”
On the bright side, Chris appears to have received a bit of a career bump.
Ticket sales for his live shows skyrocketed after what happened on Sunday, with some guests hoping he’d joke about it, but others finding it rather classy that he’s not cashing in on what happened.
He’s already received a few public apologies, and likely some private ones as well.
In his most recent Instagram post, Will Smith wrote, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be.”
Another apology comes from the Academy itself.
About Rock, they wrote, “Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in that moment.”
As of today, Smith has resigned from the Academy, though it’s still unknown if they’ll see if fit to dole out further punishment
h/t: Hollywood Life
