A day after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards for making a joke about his wife, Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro came to Rock’s defense, saying that “the Oscars are not the hood” and that Smith should be charged with assault.
While The Five guest co-host Piers Morgan explained in a measured, decent way his reaction to the event, Pirro began by choosing the other option.
“I think that the Oscars are not the hood,” she blurted out. “I think it’s not a bar. I don’t think you march up on stage because a guy makes a joke about your wife that honestly I think is complimentary.”
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Pirro added that Smith took it upon himself “to disrupt the event, to go up on stage, to commit violence on stage, then come back and curse out so we can’t even put on television what he says because he feels slighted about a joke,” she said. “And by the way, if that’s the standard, I should go to Saturday Night Live and really go crazy over there,” Pirro said, referring to her unflattering—and often drunk—portrayal by Cecily Strong.
The public, Pirro added, shouldn’t have to witness what Smith did. The A-list actor, she claimed, has “celebrity privilege” and shouldn’t be invited to future Academy Awards.
“He wasn’t walked out of the Oscars—he could have been taken out in cuffs. That was a crime what he did, it’s on tape, and it doesn’t matter if Chris Rock doesn’t want to file charges. It is the people of the state of California versus Will Smith.”
Rock indeed declined to press charges, and Smith on Monday apologized to him in an Instagram post.
Pirro then attempted to extract a political meaning from the unscripted affair.
“Hollywood, though, proves that they don’t have to follow the rules. If you’re on the right and you say something they don’t like, then they can respond with violence,” she said, apparently putting Rock on the conservative side
