WILL SMITH HAS been banned from attending the Oscars for the next 10 years after he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said.

Smith is also not permitted to attend any other events held by Hollywood’s top film group over the next decade, but the board did not decide to revoke the best actor Oscar he won last month for “King Richard.”

“The Board has decided, for a period of 10 years from 8 April, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs, in person or virtually, including but not limited to the Academy Awards,” said president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson in a letter.

Attendees of the ceremony watched as Smith stormed onstage and hit Rock, who had made a joke about his actress wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s closely cropped head – which angered Smith because she has alopecia, a condition that causes her to lose hair.

Rock managed to keep the gala on track, but the atmosphere at the event had shifted unmistakably.

Less than half an hour later, when accepting the movie world’s highest honour for an actor, Smith tearfully claimed: “Love will make you do crazy things.”

Smith subsequently apologised to Rock in an Instagram post, and Pinkett Smith posted on the platform that now was “a season for healing”.

Rock finally spoke publicly about the episode to a sold-out crowd in Boston on Wednesday.

“How was your weekend?” he asked the audience as he took to the stage, before adding that he didn’t have any material about the slap.

“If you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend,” Variety reported him saying. “I’m still kind of processing what happened.

“At some point I’ll talk about that shit,” he added. “And it will be serious and funny.”

With reporting from © AFP 2022