I love the Oscars. The ability to engulf yourself in glitz and glamour for one evening, while watching beautiful people's dreams come true, is pure magic. We get to see some of Hollywood's elite parade around a cold (you know it's drafty in there) theater, talking to each other and whispering things we can only dream of being privy to.
We also get to see Will Smith slap Chris Rock, which wasn't on my personal bingo card, but it happened. And unless you live under a — sorry for the pun — rock, you've heard about it, you've read the hot takes, you may even be over it at this point. But, Hollywood isn't. In fact, celebrities are sharing support or condemning Smith's actions during the Oscars, dividing themselves among Team Will and Team Chris. And then there are some who are just Team Switzerland, aka, their PR people got to them before they could say anything else.
So who lands where? Let's take a look at what people are saying following the slap heard around the world.
Team Chris
Stephen A Smith
Kathy Griffin
Richard Marx
Craig Melvin
Judd Apatow (in a since deleted tweet)
Rosie O'Donnell
Maria Shriver
Shanola Hampton
Mark Hamill
Sam Morril
Nick Viall (via US Weekly)
Chris Rock is there to be a comedian. He tells jokes, obviously, you know, there's always going to be some at the expense of people. ... Everyone has a right to feel though how they feel, and we have our hurt feelings, but how we handle our hurt feelings matters...I don't know if Will handled it the best. But his performance [in King Richard] was amazing. Congrats to him for winning the Oscar, certainly well-deserved in his performance. It just — I feel like it took away from his moment. I feel like more people are going to be talking about that than his award. And that's unfortunate for everyone."
Howard Stern
This is a sign of great mental illness when you can’t control your impulse...Not only that, it was hardly an insulting joke. It was not even a good joke. The joke, quite frankly, was beneath Chris Rock. It was a throwaway."
Team Will
Tiffany Haddish (via People)
A Black man stand up for his wife...meant so much to me....Maybe the world might not like how it went down, but for me it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives."
Nicki Minaj
Charlie Villanueva (via Instagram)
Let’s talk about it, we all know Jada came out and stated she had Alopecia and for those that don’t know it’s an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. She voiced that she struggled with it, and Chris Rock thought it was cool to crack a joke. We are not with Jada everyday to know the level of the struggle, but Will does. As I don’t condone violence, Im proud that Will Smith stood up for his wife. Therefore I encouraging others to be more respectful to one another. As a fellow Alopecians, I stand with Will and Jada."
Jaden Smith
Jameela Jamil
Frederick Joseph
50 Cent
Team Switzerland
Sophia Bush
LaKeith Stanfield
Minnie Driver (via Variety)
[It was] hard to watch...We were all privy to something that was emotions running really high."
Stephen Curry
Jodie Turner-Smith
DJ Jazzy Jeff the Tutor
Liam Payne
Conan O'Brien
Leslie Odom Jr.
This business can sometimes feel like walking around with your skin ripped off, you know? It's a very vulnerable thing. And so I think we saw two artists with their hearts open. It's a vulnerable moment, sometimes it's messy but it's always beautiful when it's the truth."
Cher
Paul Scheer
Trevor Noah
Image: ABC/screenshot