It’s been over two years since Oscars viewers watched in shock as Will Smith slapped Chris Rock live on television. It’s a moment most fans won’t forget, and it looks like Hollywood and large corporations haven’t forgotten either. The immediate impact was felt on Smith’s career, but it also affected other parts of his life.
The Will And Jada Smith Family Foundation is closing up shop, according to Variety, after donations dramatically dropped from Smith’s major gaffe. The media outlet obtained the tax records from ProPublica and noted that the charity’s revenue dipped from a donation high of $2,138,660 in 2021 to a donation low of $365,870 in 2022. That’s a whopping 83% decrease in one year. Corporations and Hollywood titans that generously donated in 2021, including American Airlines and high-powered talent agency CAA, declined to contribute after the slap heard around the world.
More from SheKnows
US actor Will Smith (R) slaps US actor Chris Rock onstage during the 94th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 27, 2022.
An insider, who has knowledge of Smith and Pinkett Smith’s foundation, told the outlet that after 28 years, their charity is in the process of dismantling. The couple will reportedly continue their philanthropic work privately instead. While the Smith family did not comment about their foundation to Variety, it’s pretty clear how Smith’s unfortunate actions have been viewed by those in the entertainment community.
Smith resigned his membership from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences instead of waiting for them to kick him out. He was also banned from attending the Oscars for a decade. Smith has issued several apologies to Rock, both publicly and privately, but from the looks of it, the comedian wasn’t in the mood for forgiveness.
Rock chose to address the fight in his 2023 Netflix, Selective Outrage, noting, “Will Smith practices selective outrage. Everyone that really knows knows I didn’t have anything to do with that st. I didn’t have any ‘entanglements.’” The entanglement Rock referred to is Pinkett Smith’s revelation that she had an affair with her son Jaden’s friend, August Alsina. (Fans later found out the couple was separated when the fling happened.) “She hurt him way more than he hurt me. Everybody in the world called him a b*h,” Rock said. “And who’s he hit? Me!”
Smith’s expected comeback will be the release of Bad Boys 4 on June 7 when the world will reveal if his Oscars slap is officially forgiven.
