Maryland Lawmaker Sees Backside Of Will Smith's Oscars Smackdown
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It was the slap that made headlines across the world.
Everyone's heads turned when Will Smith walked up on stage during the Oscars on Sunday and smacked comedian Chris Rock after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
"Will Smith just slapped the ***** out of me," said Rock.
Viewers were shocked to see an angry Smith walk up and hit Rock after he made a G.I. Jane joke that hinged on the shaved head of Smith's wife.
"Keep my wife's name out of your f**** mouth," Smith yelled.
Jada Pinkett Smith has publicly addressed her battle with alopecia for years.
"Y'all know I've been struggling with alopecia," Pinkett said in an Instagram post.
"Socially, it is not acceptable for a woman to have hair loss, which is really unfair because it affects men and women," Dr. Chesahna Kindra, a dermatologist in Columbia, Maryland, said.
Kindra is among the dermatologists and many others commending Pinkett for refusing to hide her hair loss.
"Patients recognized they weren't alone," Kindra said.
Pinkett is from Baltimore. She attended Baltimore's School of Arts and married Will Smith near Timonium in 1997.
During his acceptance speech, Smith said that "love will make you do crazy things."
"I wanna apologize to the Academy," he added. "I wanna apologize to all my fellow nominees."
On Monday night, Smith released a public apology on social media saying he was "embarrassed" and "out of line."
But while many people were watching the Oscars, some Marylanders were fast asleep.
Maryland state Senator Will Smith (D-Montgomery County) was one of them.
"I went to bed pretty early. I've got a three-and-a-half-year-old," Senator Smith said.
On Monday morning, Senator Smith woke up to dozens of angry Twitter messages voicing disdain over the violence that took place during the Oscars award ceremony.
"Being confused with one of the most famous people on Earth is funny but obviously the conduct that led to it was not funny," Senator Smith said.
But with hundreds of new Twitter followers, he vows to use his social media following to highlight the critical issues here in Maryland.
