NEWSOscars Producer Will Packer Admits Chris Rock Repeatedly Refused The L.A.P.D.'s Offers To Arrest Will Smith
The producer of the 2022 Oscars is shedding new light on the famed slap that stunned the world, and why Will Smith wasn't arrested.
In an clip of an interview with Good Morning America set to air Friday, April 1, Will Packer admitted the Los Angeles Police Department spoke to both him and Chris Rock privately after Smith took the stage and slapped the stand up comic across the face for insulting Jada Pinkett Smith's hair loss.
"They were saying, ‘This is battery.’ That was the word they used in that moment," Packer explained of the unexpectedly intense night. "They said, ‘We will go get him. We are prepared. We will go get him right now. You can press charges. We can arrest him.' They were laying out the options."
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The awards show producer went on to say that Rock was "very dismissive" of all of the different legal routes authorities were presenting to him from the very beginning.
"He was like, ‘No, I’m fine.' He was like 'no, no, no.' And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish," he continued. "The LAPD officers finish laying out what his options were. And they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action? And he said no."
As OK! reported, The Longest Yard actor later admitted to his audience at his first comedy show since the shocking altercation that he was "still kind of processing what happened" on stage with the King Richard star. "So, at some point I’ll talk about that sh**. And it will be serious and funny."
A source previously revealed that despite Pinkett Smith openly discussing her medical condition on Red Table Talk, Rock allegedly had no idea that she had been diagnosed with alopecia — an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss — insisting the comedian "doesn't have a mean bone in his body."
