A joke made at the expense ofJada Pinkett Smithwas at the center of the most surprising moment of94th annual Academy Awards.
Before he presented the award for Best Documentary on Sunday,Chris Rockdiverged from the subject at hand to discuss this year’s Best Actor nominees, which included Pinkett Smith’s husbandWill Smith. That led him to make a seemingly random crack comparing the shaved hairstyle of Pinkett Smith toDemi Moore’s buzzed Navy service member inG.I. Jane.
Pinkett Smith rolled her eyes while the audience laughed nervously. Then, in the night’s most unscripted moment, theKing Richardstar — who would go on towin the Best Actor Oscar— walked up to Rock and"smacked" him across the faceand told him to “leave my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth” once he was back in his seat.
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It turns out Rock’s joke was deeply personal to the actor and his wife, who has experienced hair loss due to alopecia.
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Pinkett Smith, 50, has beenvocal about dealing with hair lossfor years. She first revealed the information publicly in 2018 on herRed Table Talkseries.
“A lot of people have been asking why I’ve been wearing turbans. Well, I haven’t talked about it. It’s not easy to talk about, but I am going to talk about it,” she shared.
The actress said it “was terrifying” to deal with when it first started.
“I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, ‘Oh my God, am I going bald?'” she added. “It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking in fear. That’s why I cut my hair, and why I continue to cut it.”
“Now at this point, I can only laugh,” she said in anInstagramvideo in December 2021 as she ran her finger across a bald line patch on her scalp. “Y’all know I’ve been struggling with alopecia and just all of a sudden one day, look at this line right here. Look at that.”
She continued, “So it just showed up like that and 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 are not asking any questions.”
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At one point in time, Pinkett Smith said she wastaking “little steroid injections"to mediate her hair loss issues.
“They seem to be helping, but not curing … but I’m open to other ideas,” she said inthe video postin 2018.
More recently, Pinkett Smithdebuted her shaved hairstylelast July, crediting her daughterWillow, 21, for inspiring her to make the transition.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Thereafter, Pinkett Smith said after the incident, “It comes with the territory.”
“We gotta keep it moving,” shetold photographersat the time. “We got a lot of stuff we gotta handle, a lot of stuff going on in our world right now.”
source: people.com
