Will Smith’s slap stopped stars from drinking booze: Oscars bartender
Hollywood’s elite were shocked into a state of sobriety after Will Smith spectacularly slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards on Sunday night.
Daniel Ralston, who was serving drinks at the event, reportedly took to Twitter on Monday, writing: “Bartended the Oscars. Everybody stopped drinking after the slap.”
The tweet — which was seen by the Independent — has now been deleted.
In a second deleted tweet, Ralston reportedly wrote that the nicest celebrities of the night were Rami Malek and Reba McEntire.
It’s unclear what prompted Ralston to remove the tweets, but he subsequently posted another message stating: “The lesson here is never to tweet.”
He also shared a photo of himself serving a drink with the “Mr. Robot” star seen in the foreground, writing: “Hello to anyone who followed me for hot celebrity gossip. That is the extent of what I can tweet about my job as a private event bartender, unless you want drink recipes. I think I was making a Lemondrop in this pic.”
At Sunday night’s Oscars, Smith stormed onto the stage and struck Rock across the face after the funnyman made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Rock compared Pinkett Smith — who suffers from alopecia and shaved her head last summer — to Demi Moore’s bald character from the film “G.I. Jane,” prompting the slap from Smith.
“Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth!” Smith then shouted — twice — after returning to his seat.
A visibly stunned Rock continued with his set before leaving the stage. Just minutes later, Smith scooped up the Best Actor Oscar for his role in “King Richard.”
Smith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees during his acceptance speech. At the time, he notably left out Rock’s name, but he has since issued a formal apology.
The Academy said it is investigating the incident in a “formal review” that will “explore further action and consequences.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, Jada finally responded to the controversy, posting to Instagram saying it was “a season for healing and I’m here for it.”