At the risk of annoying or boring Daniel Radcliffe, here I am with some opinions.
First, regarding Bruce Willis’s retirement due to aphasia::
It’s truly sad he was apparently trotted out for two day jobs (at $2 million per extended cameo/co-star/support) to provide income for a dependent entourage. Variants of this happened with the latter-day careers of Glen Campbell and Tony Bennett—and air freshener remarks like “he loves to perform’ and “look how he still has muscle memory” are sprayed about to neutralize any comments about the dubious ethics of making a performer work under diminishing physical and mental conditions.
As for Will Smith slapping Chris Rock:
Jada Pinkett Smith could have easily confronted Rock about his history of jokes at her expense somewhere besides the Dolby Theater.
It’s a stunted, should be outdated, vision of manhood for Will Smith, aware of the certainty of winning the Best Actor Academy Award, to hit Chris Rock over a joke and then for Smith to use his acceptance speech to justify his behavior and link it to Richard Williams.
Yes, Smith has apologized publicly.
And, yes, the Academy is figuring out ways to defuse Sunday’s fallout on the way to what looks like a mild censure with the likelihood that no Academy personnel will have their employment terminated.
Of course, Will and Oprah are likely to have a CBS summit meeting.
And Will’s autobiography will go to paperback with a bonus chapter mixing rationalizations and apologies.
