By Adam Bloodworth
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel has made a controversial joke about Will Smith during his opening monologue.
Introducing this year’s awards, TV presenter Kimmel said: “We want you to have fun. We want you to feel safe. And most importantly, we want me to feel safe. So we have strict policies in place.
“If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute long speech.
“But seriously, the Academy has a crisis team in place. If anything unpredictable or violent happens during the ceremony, just do what you did last year.
“Nothing. Sit there and do absolutely nothing. Maybe even give the assailant a hug.”
It comes one year after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia condition which means she has lost her hair.
The 19-minute long speech part was Kimmel referencing how the Academy failed to remove Smith from the awards after he was violent, and instead allowed him to make a long winners’ speech after he took the gong for Best Actor for King Richard.
Following the ceremony the Academy announced Smith would be banned from the Oscars for ten years.
Smith has spoken on social media about the slap and most notably has apologised to Chris Rock.
However, recently Chris Rock began making jokes about the slap during his live stand-up routines.
On stage during his Chris Rock: Selective Outrage special, the comedian criticised Smith for being “selected” in what he got outraged about. He also made reference to Pinkett-Smith’s affair with a younger man.
“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock said.
“Cause everybody knows what the f— happened. Everybody that really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that s—. I didn’t have any entanglements.”
“And for people that don’t know what everybody know(s)… his wife was f—ing her son’s friend, OK? Now, I normally would not talk about this s— but for some reason, these n—– put that s— on the Internet.”
Pinkett-Smith confirmed she had been having an affair with the actor August Alsina, now 30, in a conversation with Smith during an episode of her podcast Red Table Talk.
“It was a relationship, absolutely,” Pinkett-Smith said, confirming her and husband weren’t together at the time.
Read our film editor Victoria Luxford’s predictions for who’s going to win the big awards at the Oscars tonight.
Sky, Now TV and freeview are airing the Oscars in the UK this year
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