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What is Chris Rock planning?
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Apr 12, 2022
Now that we’ve gotten our biggest celebrity tea of the year thanks to the infamous Oscars slap conducted by Will Smith onto the victim Chris Rock, everyone wants to know what comes next.
Rock has been quite hushed about the situation despite everything else going on around him.
And as fans wait to hear his true thoughts on the situation, a recent comment from Rock has some people thinking he might be staying silent for legal reasons.
Will Chris Rock sue Will Smith or The Oscars?
Rock doesn't appear to have taken any legal action against Smith or the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organizers of the Academy Awards.
He reportedly declined to press charges after the incident.
However, a comment Rock made during one of his shows in Indio, CA, has people thinking he might sue.
Fans were disappointed they didn’t hear a lot more about the incident at Rock’s show at Fantasy Springs in Indio, CA, but he did say one curious thing.
"I'm OK, I have a whole show and I'm not talking about that until I get paid. Life is good. I got my hearing back," Rock said.
Comments about waiting to get paid have people thinking he might be seeking a payout — particularly if he is being truthful about suffering from hearing loss after the slap.
Chris Rock has briefly mentioned the Oscars slap before, but never in great detail.
Days after the Oscars, he was at Boston's Wilbur Theatre speaking to his audience at the top of his sold-out comedy set, and mentioned that he wasn’t going to talk about the slap.
"I'm still processing what happened, so at some point, I'll talk about that shit," Rock told the crowd. "It'll be serious. It'll be funny, but right now I'm going to tell some jokes."
He mentioned that he had already written the set for his show that night before the weekend even occurred, so had he wanted to talk about it at all, it would’ve been too late anyway.
That was nearly two weeks ago, and now Rock seems to have a better idea of how he wants things to go in regards to the future of The Slap.
His silence may also be a tactic so he can reserve his official stance for a legal filing. If he discusses the matter publicly before this it may hurt his case, particularly if he is seen joking about the incident.
However, rumors of a Chris Rock/Will Smith lawsuit are just rumors for now.
Smith has been rumored to have entered himself into a rehabilitation center and was also banned from attending the Oscars ceremony for 10 years while still being able to win awards and attend afterparties.
His social media cycle has been ruthless with people tearing him apart and unearthings of old Red Table Talks with Jada Pinkett Smith, but Rock’s side has been completely dark.
This could be because he’s either planning on suing the Academy or Will Smith, or wants to sign some sort of exclusivity deal to get his first-hand account of the incident.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.