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Will Smith

Will Smith is releasing a new album, his first in 20 years, and is going on tour this summer

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Over the weekend, Will Smith posted a video of himself doing the “Anxiety Dance” with Tatyana Ali and Doechii. If you aren’t familiar with the Anxiety Dance, it’s a TikTok trend where people do the dance from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to a clip of Doechii’s “Anxiety,” which samples the melody from Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” It was started by a TikToker named Mimiola Olatunji.

Anyway, Tatyana, Will, and Doechii recreated the famous scene where Will catches Ashley dancing while wearing headphones and dances along with her. Obviously, the clip went viral. And, now that Will has everyone’s attention, he’s announced that he’s dropping a new hip hop album for the first time in 20 years! Based on a True Story has 14 new tracks and will be out in two weeks, on March 28.

Will Smith has announced the date that his latest album will be released as his imminent return to the world of hip-hop continues after a 20-year hiatus. The actor-rapper-producer shared the news on Instagram on Sunday, writing in a post that his new album is scheduled for release in two weeks.

“It’s OFFICIAL!! My new album, Based on a True Story, drops on March 28. TWO WEEKS!! Hit that presave. Been working on this project for a minute and I’m itchin’ to get it out to y’all ????????,” Smith posted on the social media platform to his 69.5 million followers.

The 14-track album will reunite Smith with DJ Jazzy Jeff and feature collaborations with Teyana Taylor and Jac Ross. Smith released a single, “Beautiful Scars,” that features Big Sean and Obangain, in January.

The iconic comic and dramatic actor, and an Oscar winner for 2021’s King Richard, Smith has risen to the level of a multi-hyphenate pop culture phenomenon over his career, which began with rap music. He emerged from the fledgling hip-hop scene in the late 1980s as half of the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince with instant classics like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble,” both of which came with videos that enjoyed heavy MTV rotation.

Smith’s long-running hit NBC sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, featured his rapping, and as his Hollywood career took off, his music career flourished in tandem. At times, his franchise and Hollywood blockbuster movies, including Wild Wild West and Men in Black, featured a title track from Smith. His hip-hop career hit a peak with 1997’s Big Willie Style; he released three more records, Willennium (1999), Born to Reign (2002) and Lost and Found (2005), before putting down the mic to focus on his career in film as an actor and producer.

As an icon of entertainment for the last several decades, Smith is still, for many, rehabilitating his reputation after the shocking moment at the 2022 Academy Awards. This notorious Oscars moment saw the actor walk onstage and slap Chris Rock across the face following a joke the comedian made about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. The fallout of that moment tarnished Smith’s reputation and led to him being banned from the Oscars for 10 years.

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Thoughts on Will coming out with a new album? Other than Emancipation and last year’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die, he’s been laying relatively low since the Oscars slap, so it makes sense that his reemergence is a pivot back to music. I’m an Elder Millennial, so Fresh Prince, Men in Black, and Will’s first three albums all happened when I was in middle school thru high school. It’s cool, but also not surprising at all that he’s working with Jazzy Jeff again. Clearly, they work well together. When Will released “Beautiful Scars” a few months ago, I just figured he was using music to work through some things. It never occurred to me that he was recording a whole new album. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think this type of comeback will be well-received. Enough time has passed and he’s going through a different door.

Will also announced a world tour on Monday. It kicks off this summer with dates in Europe and the UK. Presale begins on Wednesday, March 19 and general sales are on Friday, March 21. Interesting! Alright, Mr. Smith. I’m intrigued.

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Photos credit: Seth Browarnik/INSTARimages, Getty and via Instagram

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Jada Pinkett Smith Jaden Smith Will Smith Willow Smith

Willow & Jaden Smith ‘feel bad for their dad’ in the wake of Jada’s memoir

willow-&-jaden-smith-‘feel-bad-for-their-dad’-in-the-wake-of-jada’s-memoir

For the past week, Jada Pinkett Smith has been promoting her memoir, Worthy, and talking all about her marriage to Will Smith. They’ve been separated since 2016-ish, although they have no plans to divorce and they still talk about how much they love each other. Will has made some public comments in support of Jada and her memoir, although this week he also posted an Instagram with the message “notifications off.” I guess we’re supposed to believe that he’s not paying attention to all of the noise. So be it – that’s actually pretty healthy. Meanwhile, we haven’t heard anything from Will and Jada’s adult children, Willow (22) and Jaden (25). According to Entertainment Tonight, they’re really tired of their parents making everything so damn public.

The Smith kids are wishing for privacy. Amid Jada Pinkett Smith’s recent shocking revelations — most notably that she and Will Smith have been separated for seven years — a source tells ET that their kids, Willow Smith and Jaden Smith, “feel bad for their dad with all the recent headlines about their parents.”

“They know he has been going through a lot lately and this isn’t helping,” the source says of the Smith kids, which also includes Trey Smith, whom Will shares with his ex-wife, Sheree Zampino. “They wish some of their family’s private matters remained private.”

As for the 55-year-old actor, the source says he’s “trying to stay busy and has been hanging out with his good friends and his kids.”

“He’s trying not to let any outside noise impact him,” the source says. “Will loves Jada and feels like he has always had her back and always will. He has been trying to be supportive, while also taking care of himself.”

[From ET]

I’ll admit that I feel bad for Will too. Jada has made it clear that she’s still ride-or-die for Will (just in a separate home), but I also feel… no one would really hold it against Will if he got a divorce and started a life away from Jada. I don’t think Jada is toxic or whatever, but clearly, they have outgrown each other and it feels like this situation, which they both created, has outlived its usefulness. It’s stagnant. As for the oversharing… Will overshared like crazy when he wrote his memoir. Still, I feel for Willow and Jaden. They don’t want any part of their parents’ dramas.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Jada Pinkett Smith: ‘It was ridiculous’ that people blamed me for the Oscar Slap

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It’s still sort of incredible that people continue to relitigate the 2022 “Oscar Slap” only to come to the conclusion that Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith were both at fault. Literally, there have been comments just this week about that. Jada was the target of Rock’s cruel joke, just as she’d been the target of his cruelty and harassment for decades before that night. Following the Oscar Slap, Chris Rock continued to blame JADA, targeting her yet again in his Netflix standup special, which he filmed in her hometown (Baltimore) and where he referred to her as a “bitch” dozens of times, claiming that she “started it.” Perhaps in Chris Rock’s delusional mind, Jada started it by refusing his advances. Well, Jada has more to say about how f–king crazy it was that she got the blame for her husband slapping Chris Rock.

Jada Pinkett Smith is looking back on the aftermath of her husband Will Smith’s Oscars incident.

“It was ridiculous in how far it went,” Jada, 52, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, reflecting on the rumors that she was somehow to blame for when Will, 55, struck Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards.

“But I also understood at the same time. Considering the false narrative that I had cheated on Will or I was like some adulteress, Will had never done that before,” Jada says. “And I think that when we just look at human nature… when you look at the breadcrumbs, people need something to blame.”

“And so people not knowing what was happening behind the scenes, I surely wasn’t surprised that I got blamed,” she adds of how some interpreted the incident. “But I understood that that’s just the human nature of it all.”

[From People]

She’s right – it’s ridiculous how far it went, and she probably wasn’t surprised that so many people found a way to blame her. My heart still breaks for her when I think about that moment, especially knowing what we know now. She supported Will throughout his Oscar campaign, walking red carpets with him as they played as elite Black Hollywood power couple, even though they had been separated for years. She did that because she genuinely supports him and loves him, and she was there on Oscar night as the wife of a Best Actor nominee. Then Chris Rock – someone who has targeted her and harassed her for many years – got on stage and made fun of her alopecia. All she did was roll her eyes and look disgusted. That’s it. The rest of it was Will.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Instar, cover courtesy of People.

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Jada Pinkett Smith Will Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith & Will Smith have been separated for seven years

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Jada Pinkett Smith gave exclusive interviews to People Magazine and the Today Show to promote her memoir, Worthy. The exclusives are Jada’s comments on a series of topics, from Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, to her suicidal depression to the fact that she and Will have been separated for seven years. Some highlights from her People cover story:

The Oscar slap: “I thought, ‘This is a skit.’ ” Like many people watching the incident unfold on live TV, she didn’t believe it was real at first. “I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him,’ ” Jada, 52, recalls. “It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.” The first words she uttered to Will once they were alone after the show were “Are you okay?”

She’s on Will’s side: “I’m going to be by his side, but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself.”

How she & Will started up: After meeting multiple times in passing — and once he got divorced from his first wife Sheree Zampino — he called Jada and asked, “Who are you going out with?” Replying that she was single, Will declared: “Well, you’re going out with me now.” Laughing at the recollection, Jada says, “Can you believe I fell for that?”

Her depression: “When I turned 40, I was in so much pain. I couldn’t figure a way out besides death. So I made a plan.” Jada is aware of how her life looked from the outside, especially about a decade ago. The glamour and the smiles, the mansion, gowns and movie premieres. The “they have it all” of it all. “But, while I was really living the dream, I hit a huge wall — a massive amount of depression. I think that I looked at having outside sources to supplement for the voids that I was feeling inside.” She said the “voices” were incoming. “‘Just kill yourself. You’re not worth anything, you ain’t s—.’ ” Jada began to plot her death. “I started looking for places, cliffs where I could have an accident, because I didn’t want my kids to think that their mother had committed suicide.”

Her marriage to Will: “We’re still figuring it out,” Jada says of the state of their marriage. She says they had been separated for six years before the Oscars in 2022. “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”

Her children: “My children, they’re little gurus. They’ve taught me a deep sense of self-acceptance. They love every part of me,” she says of Jaden, 25, Willow, 22, and Trey, 30. “The level of love, unconditional love that they have for me and their dad. And it’s one thing to want to be the person that gives that unconditional love. And then there’s, to be the recipient of that.”

[From People]

I feel so sorry for her that things got so dark for her that she was forming a plan. That’s awful. She speaks in depth about that and how she overcame it with medication, time, love, self-love and drugs. As for her separation from Will… I mean, that’s not a shock, at all. There were stretches of time where they were both acting single and their marriage seemed in tatters, then a year would pass and they were loved-up on a red carpet. I can totally understand why Jada was by his side during his Oscar campaign – she still loves him and he probably asked her to. And for it to all blow up like that on Oscar night… wow.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, cover courtesy of People.

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Chris Rock wants everyone to know: he has not been obsessed with Jada for 30 years

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One year after “the slap” at the 2022 Oscars, Chris Rock addressed Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith in his Netflix special, which aired last Friday. It took him a year to figure out what to say and, in that year, he never once had a moment where he considered altering his worldview or perhaps made the decision to speak differently about Black women. In the aftermath of his special, the reaction has been pretty remarkable: overwhelming disgust at Rock’s blatant pandering to a white audience, disgust that Rock continues to attack Jada, a woman who has done nothing to him, and disgust with Rock’s contradictory, nonsensical attacks on Meghan Markle. One year after the slap, it feels like even more people are like “wow, I understand why Will Smith slapped him.”

Interestingly enough, around the one-year anniversary, Jada’s friends are talking too. Jada must have been unsettled by Rock’s continued and unprovoked attacks on her in his Netflix show, where he repeatedly referred to her as “bitch” and shared his delusions that Jada had somehow been criticizing him for years (she has not). Jada’s people said it flat-out: Rock has been obsessed with Jada in this bizarre way for almost 30 years. He even filmed the Netflix thing in Baltimore, Jada’s hometown. Well, Chris Rock read that People story and he ran straight to Page Six to cry about how he didn’t pick Jada’s hometown because of Jada. Some highlights:

Rock’s side says Will Smith still hasn’t “personally apologized”: Will Smith still has not personally apologized to Chris Rock nearly one year after the infamous 2022 Oscars slap, a source tells Page Six. “Will did call Chris last year after the Oscars, but Chris didn’t pick up. And they haven’t spoken since,” a source who knows both men tells Page Six exclusively. “Chris was open for a call until Will made his public apologies, and then all of those ‘Red Table Talk’ discussions,” the insider continues, referring to Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook Watch show, on which she once shared her hope that her husband and his onetime friend could “reconcile.”

Will’s multiple apologies: Smith, 54, has apologized for the incident twice via Instagram: in a written statement the day after the awards show in March 2022 and in an emotional video in July. “Will’s two public apologies were all about saving his own reputation,” the source claims to us. “Will has not apologized to Chris Rock in person — and Chris isn’t expecting it.”

Rock’s closure: In fact, Rock, 58, is ready to move on now that he has said his piece in his live special. “This was closure for Chris,” our source says. “He wanted to do that in a safe space.”

Why Rock filmed in Baltimore: The insider also denies a recent People magazine report that claimed Rock chose to film his special in Baltimore because Pinkett Smith, 51, grew up there. “[He] performed there five times last year, and he loves the audience,” the source explains. “The choice of venue wasn’t because Chris has been obsessed with Jada ‘for 30 years,’ as it had been claimed. It is because he feels comfortable in the venue and audience.”

[From Page Six]

He liked the vibe of… Baltimore? Don’t get me wrong, Baltimore is a vibrant American city. But… Rock could have gone to Philadelphia or New York or DC or Boston or Chicago or literally anywhere else and sold out. Baltimore does seem like a very specific choice and by that I mean, specific to Jada. As I said, it’s giving Incel. I still believe the stories about Jada rejecting Rock in the ‘90s. That’s his energy – a guy who has been rejected and spends years obsessing over the woman who rejected him.

As for Will not “personally” apologizing to Rock – Will has made it clear multiple times that he’s reached out to Rock and that he would like to apologize in person and clear the air. Rock has refused, because clearing the air might mean that Will would call him to account for his obsession with denigrating Will’s wife.

Photos courtesy of Kirill Bichutsky/Netflix, Avalon Red.

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Chris Rock ‘said what he needed to say & doesn’t give a sh-t about the reaction’

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In yesterday’s post, I was incorrect when I wrote that Chris Rock “did stand-up in front of a mostly white audience, and the positive response for the special has mostly come from the conservative, right-wing media.” The actual audience in the Baltimore theater – where Chris Rock filmed his Netflix special – was mostly Black. The audience for the Netflix special was mostly white. The positive reactions for the special mostly came from white people. It’s also worth noting that Jada Pinkett Smith is from Baltimore, and that Chris never said Jada’s name in his routine, but he did call Jada AND Will Smith a “bitch” several times. Rock also did a big segment on how the Duchess of Sussex was wrong to go on Oprah and claim that the Windsors are racist because…in Rock’s words, everyone knows that the Windsors have always been racist. A lot of people were wildly offended by Rock’s doubling-down on attacking Black women, but according to Rock’s people, he’s very pleased with the reaction:

Chris Rock is basking in the wake of his live comedy show. Two days after the comedian, 58, skewered Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith during Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, an industry source tells PEOPLE that he “is riding high from the Netflix special.”

“He said what he needed to say and doesn’t give a s— about the reaction either way. He isn’t worried,” the insider adds. A year after the infamous incident at the 94th Academy Awards where Will, 54, struck Rock in the face onstage after the latter made a joke about Jada, 51, Rock addressed the assault in his live special on Saturday night, asserting he “is not a victim.”

Many of Rock’s fans and friends have come to his defense amid some online backlash over the jokes. The source tells PEOPLE that “people have been waiting for [Rock’s] reaction for a year,” adding, “For the most part, I think it was well received. People don’t expect sugarcoating from Chris Rock.”

[From People]

Personally, after we watched Will Smith publicly eat sh-t for months and really use that time to reflect and figure out why he did what he did, I kind of hoped that Rock would do something similar in a smaller way – like, perhaps acknowledge that he gets off on attacking Black women. Perhaps reflect on the ways he needs to change to make funnier, more socially relevant comedy. It could have been the moment when Will Smith slapped some sense into him. Instead, Rock seems bitter, nasty and hellbent on degrading Black people even more. Meanwhile, Will Smith is still trying to make amends:

Will Smith is still intent on repairing his relationship with Chris Rock, a source tells PEOPLE. A year after the infamous incident at the 94th Academy Awards where Smith struck Rock onstage, Rock addressed the assault in his live Netflix comedy special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage on Saturday, asserting he “is not a victim.”

A source tells PEOPLE that Smith, 54, has “felt terrible for so long” about smacking Rock at the Oscars. “He’s tried unsuccessfully to make amends in the best way he could with Chris,” adds the source. “But beyond that, family is important to him and [Smith] leaned on them” in the aftermath of the incident, the source says. “It all has helped him look inside and mature. He is better but still remorseful.”

“Will listened to those who tried to help him and feels that he has become a better person,” the source continues.

[From People]

I hope he has matured but I also hope he simply moves on. At this point, he doesn’t owe Chris Rock anything. Will doesn’t owe the Academy anything either – they lied about him, overreacted and treated the slap like it was the worst thing that ever happened, like they didn’t give Roman Polanski a f–king Oscar.

Will Smith slaps you in front of 16 million people, and after a year of hyping up your comedy special, all you can come up with is calling him a bitch over and over…

Will Smith – 2

Chris Rock – 0 pic.twitter.com/JPkI5uWkgb

— chris rodgers. (@cxrodge) March 5, 2023

Photos courtesy of Kirill Bichutsky/Netflix, Avalon Red, Instar and YouTube.

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Serena Williams on the Oscar Slap: ‘I’ve been there… It’s not the end of the world’

serena-williams-on-the-oscar-slap:-‘i’ve-been-there…-it’s-not-the-end-of-the-world’

Serena Williams gave Gayle King an exclusive interview for CBS This Morning this week. Serena is promoting her Super Bowl commercial for Michelob Ultra, which is just a reminder that even after Serena’s retirement from tennis last year, she remains in-demand for companies and brands. This is one of Serena’s first sit-down interviews since her retirement, and she sounds fine. She has some twinges of regret, but mostly, she’s looking forward to her next projects, including growing her family. Her husband Alexis Ohanian was even included in the interview a little bit, and I’m pleased to say that he still worships her. I’m including the videos of the Michelob commercial and the CBS interview at the end of the post.

When I watched this last night, I was surprised that Gayle was the first person to ask Serena about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars last year. Will was nominated (and he won) for playing Richard Williams, Serena’s father. Serena was there that night in the auditorium when Will slapped Chris Rock. She posted a stunned reaction on her social media right after it happened, but she never condemned Will or said much of anything about what went down. Here’s what she told Gayle:

During their chat, King showed Williams a sweet video of her father coaching her as a child and then segued into “that moment at the Oscars,” asking the tennis star how she felt about the situation, without specifically mentioning the Slap.

“I thought it was such an incredible film, and I feel that there was an incredible film after that with Questlove that kind of was overshadowed,” Williams began. “But I also feel that I’ve been in a position where I’ve been under a lot of pressure and made a tremendous amount of mistakes, and I’m the kind of person that’s like, ‘I’ve been there. I’ve made a mistake. It’s not the end of the world.’ We’re all imperfect, and we’re all human, and let’s just be kind to each other. So, that’s often forgotten a lot.”

[From THR]

That’s a great perspective and I wish more people had approached it like that – “I’ve been there. I’ve made a mistake. It’s not the end of the world.” The overwhelming majority of Black actors and Black celebrities downright refused to talk sh-t about Will following the slap, and I’m glad Serena isn’t throwing Will under the bus either. A queen!

There’s a lot of great stuff in this interview, like Olympia praying for a sibling, Serena calling Alexis “nerdy” and more.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.