The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will meet on Friday to decide on possible sanctions against actor Will Smith after he slapped Chris Rock ten days earlier than originally scheduled.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences explained on Wednesday that this meeting had been brought forward since Will Smith has meanwhile resigned on his own. The actor therefore no longer needs a period of time to prepare his defense in this disciplinary procedure which could lead to a suspension or expulsion from the organization. “It is in the interests of all parties that the matter be resolved as quickly as possible,” Academy President David Rubin wrote in a letter to members. Will Smith, 53, had taken the lead last Friday, apologizing for his gesture and announcing his resignation from the Academy. “My actions at the 94th Academy Awards were shocking, painful and inexcusable,” the actor wrote, five days after taking the stage to slap comedian Chris Rock who had just made a joke about his close-cropped hair. wife.”The unacceptable and harmful behavior of a candidate on stage”Jada Pinkett Smith said publicly a few years ago that she suffered from alopecia, a disease causing severe hair loss. A few tens of minutes after the slap, Will Smith returned to the Oscars stage to receive the Best Actor award for his role in The Williams Method. In a letter to members of the Academy, the leaders said they were “scandalized ” by the incident, lamenting that the ceremony “was overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior of a contestant on stage”. The board had opened disciplinary proceedings, but Chris Rock explicitly refused to press charges after the slap. “I’m still digesting what happened. So, at some point, I’m going to talk about this stuff. And it will be serious and funny”, he had said at the start of a show, a few days after the incident. Voices were raised to demand that Will Smith be stripped of his Oscar, but others pointed out that neither Harvey Weinstein, a former Hollywood mogul convicted of rape and sexual assault, nor director Roman Polanski had been forced to return their statuette after being expelled from the Academy.
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