Janet Yang speaks on Oscars Will Smith slap incident

The slap sat front and centre at the recent Oscar nominee’s luncheon. So much so that motion picture academy president Janet Yang neither had to describe it nor say the names Will Smith or Chris Rock for the ballroom full of award hopefuls to know what she was talking about when she aired her regrets.

“I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars,” Yang told a crowd that included Tom Cruise, Angela Bassett, Cate Blanchett and Steven Spielberg during her opening remarks. “What happened onstage was wholly unacceptable and the response from our organisation was inadequate.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did little in response to Smith storming the stage and slapping Rock during last year’s Oscars telecast or in the immediate aftermath. It was nearly two weeks before its board of governors voted to ban Smith from the Oscars and all other academy events for 10 years. Smith had already preemptively resigned as an academy member.

NTBI -- “We learned from this that the academy must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions and particularly in times of crisis, you must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and our industry. You should and can expect no less from us going forward,” said Yang.

Yang, who was not president at the time, was interrupted by a mild round of applause and did not elaborate further, moving on to happier topics. She was met with whooping applause when she told the nominees that all categories would be shown live on ABC on March 12.