Chris Rock was making a few jokes before giving the award for best documentary when Will Smith stormed the stage and slapped Rock in the face. Smith then walked back to his seat and shouted "Leave my wife's name out of your fucking mouth!" to Rock. A visibly stunned Rock said he was just making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith being in G.I. Jane (because she has a shaved head) and Smith repeated his threat. The incident was censored in the U.S., but you can see and hear what happened on Japanese television:
Chris Rock quickly composed himself and gave the award to Questlove for Summer of Soul. Smith later won best actor for King Richard.
From Variety:
Pinkett Smith announced last year she shaved her head after struggling with alopecia. The actor said in an Instagram post, "Now at this point, I can only laugh… y'all know I've been struggling with alopecia. Just all of a sudden, one day…it just showed up like that. Now, this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide. So, I thought I'd just share it so y'all not asking any questions…Mama's gonna have to take it down to the scalp so nobody thinks she got brain surgery or something. Me and this alopecia are going to be friends … period!"
