Horror at the Academy Awards

Sunday night, March 27th, was the Oscars ceremony, the Academy Awards of Motion Pictures and Sciences, and of all the award shows in the entertainment industry, this is the preeminent one.  My first degree in college was a Bachelor of Arts in Radio, Television, and Film, from the University of North Texas.  I studied the science as well as the artistic side of making motion picture and I learned that each is incredibly difficult, and it was made very clear to me that movies with the caliber to reach the Oscars (and/or the Golden Globes, and the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in France, and the BAFTA Awards in England) are the very few among literally millions that have reached the summit of artistic/aesthetic value.  If anyone involved in the movie Industry, in any facet of film making, wins an Oscar, they are virtually guaranteed lifetime employment with gigantic salaries or benefits, anywhere.

Just as significant as the award is the award ceremony itself which for almost a century was the most glamorous, most bourgeoisie event in Hollywood.  Pomp and circumstance, glamour and glitz, the best of the “bold and beautiful” are in presentation before the world.  The way the event is presented is to take the collective breath of the world away.  Even the Memoriam, where those great and significant creators and entertainers who passed away are remembered, is one geared to provoke the greatest emotion and desire to be a part of this industry.

In recent years the Oscars have lost their luster as both the comedic hosts of the event as well as the entertainers and producers became increasingly left-wing liberal/woke to the point the show was unwatchable, as were most of the movies that made it to award nominations.  LGBTQ… was increasingly marketed and anything conservative or Biblical was treated with extreme contempt, except when used by the black “Christians” in the industry, namely Denzel Washington, Tyler Perry, and Will Smith, who have the type of spiritual life that Hollywood will wink at.  And that brings us up to the topic in question: the “slap seen around the world.”

I doubt if anyone except for movie “zealots” knows which film won Best Picture (CODA), or who won Best Director, probably not even Best Actress or any other award for that matter.  What is known to all is that Will Smith, who ended up winning Best Actor, took his award after an absolute unhinged display of reality.  He walked up on the stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock right across the face after Rock made a mild joke which supposedly had to do with Smith’s wife’s (actress Jada Pinkett Smith) hair (or the lack of it).  She is suffering from Alopecia, a condition that leads to premature balding.  Rock apparently did not know about her condition, but even if he had, the joke was innocuous enough not to be overly offensive, if it was offensive at all.  (“Jada, I love you.  ‘G.I. Jane 2’, can’t wait to see it.”)  G.I. Jane was a feminist type movie from 1997 about a woman who had joined the Navy Seals (a premise that would never happen), and as part of her training, Demi Moore (the lead actress) had shaved her hair completely to join with her male compatriots in the movie.  Considering the politically correct world of Hollywood, this joke should not be considered an insult, but as always, Hollywood morality and mores is shifting and forgotten after the fad fades.

Jada Pinkett Smith had made a comment one week before the Oscars about her bald that she did not “care two C---Ps” what people thought about her hair (or lack of it), “because guess what, I like it.”  Apparently, she forgot that statement or it was the type of lie that virtue signalers always tell, despite what they really feel.  Nonetheless, if she had all the self-confidence she supposedly emotes, this would not have been so much an insult as possibly an opportunity.  But, the façade came crashing down on Sunday night.  Both she and her husband are a despicable horror show.

Smith laughed at first at Chris Rock’s joke, but apparently his high and mighty wife was not amused.  The next moment, he climbed the stairs of the stage stalking toward Chris Rock.  Back in the past days of Hollywood comedy-not at the Oscars- this was usually a part of the show that sometimes was ad-libbed (or seemingly spontaneous) but never a subtraction from the comedian performing on the stage, after all the show must go on, and comedians are there to make the audience laugh.  But had producers knew what was about to happen, they would have immediately pulled the plug on the show.

Will Smith walked up to Chris Rock, set himself and slapped him across the face.  Hard.  As he swaggered back to his seat, Chris Rock stunned blurted, “D---N, Will Smith just slapped the S—T out of me.”

Smith was not finished.  After taking his seat, he screams at Rock: Keep my wife’s name out of your F-----G MOUTH!

“C’mon man that was a G.I. Jane joke.”

“KEEP MY WIFE’S NAME OUT OF YOUR F-----G MOUTH!”

And then the veneer of elegance and civility was permanently ripped off the Academy Awards.  The irony is that just a few minutes later, Will Smith was awarded the Best Actor award and during his “emotional” acceptance speech, he stated that he wanted to be a “vessel of love.”  He apologized to his fellow compatriots in the Academy, but not to the recipient of his vile abuse, Chris Rock.  For his “wonderful” acting rendition of an acceptance speech, he was given a standing ovation by those present at the Kodak Theatre.  But not everyone was so easily suckered.

By the way, I have only seen an outcry about the slap on Chris Rock, not the verbal tongue lashing which Smith hurled at him from his seat.  That too could be considered criminal (not freedom of speech) in California just by its abusive nature.  I wonder if any of those people had the slightest mental scruples to at least be embarrassed.  It is only the most ignorant or base of people who would think that such profanity around women and children is of no problem or consequence, or that it is acceptable for anyone (men, women, and children) to use.  Chris Rock declined to press any charges against Smith, but that does mean that he was not affected by the assault.  Actor Jim Carrey said that if he had been in Rock’s position, he would have announced to the press on Monday morning that he would sue Smith for $200 million; “after all, that video is going to be around forever.”

After this episode, the Public Relation agents, journalists, and commentators and personalities who took sides between Rock and Smith started to go at it.  Smith, as much as he is a Hollywood star, made a big mistake assaulting Rock who was formerly a comedian/personality on Saturday Night Live.  All of those entertainers (both past and present) turned their “guns” on the “Fresh Prince” (the title that Will Smith had when he first began his entertainment career as a rapper from Philadelphia).

Personalities throughout the Entertainment industry began to join one side or the other.  One group was asserting that Rock had no right to make a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith and that he deserved to be slapped.  The other group responded by saying that the joke was very tame compared to what it could have been, especially in light of the Trump years.  They further asserted what comedians have known for over a hundred years: anyone in the public eye is fair game for satirical comedy.

This was an incident between two black men, and amateur “psychologists” began hypothesizing that somehow that this was caused by “white racism.”  Others lauded Smith for “defending his wife’s honor.”  This point was countered by asking how Jada Pinkett Smith defended her husband’s honor when she announced to the world that she and her husband had a “open marriage” and then began to share an “entanglement” (an adulterous affair) that she had entered into with a friend of her son, in front of her husband, and seemingly with his acceptance (I do not believe he wanted to at all).  Meanwhile, the Academy of Motion Pictures was placed in a position to make a moral decision, something that body does not do willingly, and cannot do so with initiative unless there is a public outcry so significant as to cause ‘bad press for the group.  Apparently, there was.  They ended up placing a ten year ban on Smith, prohibiting him from attending or taking part in any other event connected to the Academy Awards-though one cannot know if they will enforce the ban for the long term, based on the fickle nature of Hollywood.

This incident was repulsive and disgusting, but do not look to the entertainment industry to find the reason for that revulsion.  Or to the majority African American church to express any contempt about it.  They would rather “sweep it under the rug”, or quote Scriptures that they have not practiced in the last few years, such as “turning the other cheek” or “pray for them who curse you.”

There was a time when the Pentecostal experience (speaking in tongues, prophecy, spiritual warfare, etc.) and Christian terminology and jargon WERE NOT for common use in the entertainment industry, but that is not the case now.  Renowned actor Denzel Washington (a two-time Oscar winner, and multiple time nominee, including in this award ceremony) who is a member of West Angeles Church of God in Christ (a Pentecostal church) tried to be the mediator between Smith and Rock.  As he tried to calm Smith down, he told him that the “devil shows up in the time of your blessing.”  (Tyler Perry and Bradly Cooper were also trying to console him.)  I had to wonder (no offense to Washington, who seems to have a true Christian witness in Hollywood): why on earth was Denzel telling Will Smith that, and especially in the most “woke” Academy Awards ever?  This idiocy was not happening for the first time.  When the Jussie Smollett fiasco happened, one of his fellow actors from the TV show Empire, Taraji P. Henson, said that there was “so much spiritual warfare involved,” and this “great revelation” came after Smollett was found guilty of fabricating the race crime that put him on the map as a victim and later as a vile liar.  Psalms 50:16 comes to mind.

The sad thing is that Denzel Washington had one point right: this should have been a blessed night for Will Smith.  The summation of at least four decades worth of work.  Smith first became famous for his joint venture in rap music with the D.J. Jazzy Jeff in the late 80s and early 90s from where he entered acting with the hit TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air produced by Quincy Jones.  It is not easy to become an actor without any experience, but Smith worked on his craft with some excellent directors, producers, and coaches.  From here, he went into movies from bit parts in comedies and dramas to lead roles in box office hits and thrillers, and then to more refined roles to bring out the inner dynamics of acting.  No one who saw Smith in the beginning on Fresh Prince would have thought that he would so develop his craft to the point of being nominated for and winning an Academy Award, but he did.

Smith did not have the typical story of those who are purveyors of hip hop/rap music in the 1980s.  His mother was a teacher and school board administrator.  His father had served in the U.S. Air Force and worked as a refrigeration engineer.  They lived in the middle class neighborhood of Wynnefield in West Philadelphia.  The family was part of a Baptist church.  Smith’s parents (particularly his mother) placed a strong emphasis on his education, and he did very well.  According to one account, his SAT scores were high enough for him to receive an invitation to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He later said in an interview that his mother did not tolerate him deviating into the improper use of the English language in conversation.  “Jive” or “Ebonics” was not allowed; profanity was definitely frowned upon.  But that said, all of this only accentuates what he lost that Sunday night.

If anyone out there is saying that this indiscretion will not “define him,” I suggest they go online and find out how many hits this scene received after the video went viral and began to trend on social media.  And then come back and talk about how it does not “define him.”  Will Smith and his wife and kids have been living in the fantasy land of Hollywood for far too long.  They had the same mindset that Oprah Winfrey had, namely that they could change of the way of the world by presenting themselves as a high and above, exemplary model.  They became gigantic successes in the entertainment world with billions of dollars to their name and influence over millions.  Winfrey started her own religion.  The Smith did that as well as start their own family reality shows; Jada Pinkett Smith’s “red table” became famous.  In essence, they thought that they could present the best of all possible “woke” worlds where the old fashioned Judeo-Christian morals and mores would be tossed out the door by these “beautiful people” who knew better than everybody and anybody else, including God.

Constantly, they were in the media full of themselves in the pride of their success.  Their main audience was the black community, but scores of people from other races joined into the woke religion, if only to be counted with the “in-crowd” who were not “unsophisticated, racists, old-fashioned, homophobes.”  And many preachers were seduced because they could not discern the spirit behind this proverbial “snow job”.

Some of these preachers are so familiar with these entertainment personalities, even appearing with them in different venues, or having them come to the stage in their respective churches, and yet not one of them confronted them or contradicted them when they began to peddle un-Biblical/un-Christian ideas and lifestyles.  They rather winked and took the public’s adulation and adoration, and the thousands or millions of dollars in “offerings or gifts” to their respective ministries.

It took that incident at the Oscars, where a man slaps another man across the face at a public event for these preachers, as well as the rest of the world to ask, “What is wrong with that man?”  (Did it matter what color they were?  Is not certain things wrong regardless of race?)

African-American political commentator Candace Owens said of Will Smith that he should be pitied, not because she approved of his slapping Chris Rock, but rather because he was in essence the foremost symbol of the emasculated man which the liberals and woke crowds want for the West.  Sports journalist/commentator Jason Whitlock (also an African-American) rebuffed actors Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry’s attempts to pacify Will Smith with prayer and Christian edification, as well as to Christianize Hollywood, an industry (which he pointed out) that has absolutely no love for the Bible or for the God of the Bible but is utterly antagonistic to Christianity to the point of being repulsive.  Perhaps more people in the Church as well as in the public at large should pay attention to both of these points.

Had Will Smith and the rest of Hollywood been paying attention to what happened to President Donald Trump and members of his administration during his term of office, he (and they) would know that what happened to them means that sardonicism can be thrown at anyone.  No one is exempt.  The insane people in the press as well as the entertainment industry all said that President Trump “deserved” their ire because in their opinion, he was a “bad man” and they screamed when he walked out of their performances, or did not show up for them to viciously insult him, like when he boycotted the National Correspondence Dinner of the Press Club.  But the main point is, he never once got up and slapped anyone or arrested anyone who had thrown the worst insults.  He may have thrown insults on Twitter, but that was a recognition of the fact that he was willing to engage in back and forth discourse that did not have to get physical.

The Smiths portrayed themselves as “higher than thous,” and somehow thought it was absolutely alright to walk up and slap someone across the face.  There was a different morality for him and them.  And many in the press, media, and mainstream are in a state of discombobulation trying to form a coherent response, and they keep failing.  During the Trump Years, Congresswoman Maxine Watters, who represents the 43rd District of California in the U.S. Congress publicly advocated violence against conservatives and/or anyone who supported President Trump, an idea that all her colleagues in the Democrat party shared and which the press supported; but what do such morally ignorant people, such morally compromised people do now?

They can do nothing… but suffer the consequences.  Their hypocrisy is exploding like an atom bomb!

The entertainment industry is not looking at the Will Smith slapping of Chris Rock as a moral issue, but rather as a “public relations disaster.”  Regarding consequences, Smith may lose some privileges with Academy of Motion Pictures, because of his action’s reflection on that body.  His YouTube hits, and that of his wife, may go down significantly.  But I doubt that anyone attached to Hollywood can answer the “why” of these actions toward Smith.  Is there something in our hearts as human beings that feels disgusted?  That feeling is there not because of an idea of goodness that finds its creation in mankind’s mind.  How could it when I just gave examples of the fickleness of our times where famous personalities and people in government justified physically attacking and destroying people who did not share their political or moral opinions?  Could it be because we are created, and that our Creator put a soul into us which is connected to Him?

I do not know if Will Smith feels anything about his actions which is a result of morality rather than a reaction in response to the PR downturn which even an Oscar cannot stop.  Only God knows this.  Perhaps, the pseudo-religiosity of him and his wife will take a severe beating, and I hope it will with the public at large.  Subsequently, I hope that he will know that for these actions, and more, all of us will give an account before Jesus Christ at some point in the afterlife.  If that thought does not come into his, as well as all our minds now, then actions like this one will not just become commonplace, but also filled with such apathy as to be banal (boring).  Should we be paying attention?  After the destructions of the last few years, is it not stunning that it took Will Smith slapping Chris Rock to wake us up to the fact that such an action is wrong and disgusting?