Did the Academy lie about Will Smith’s expulsion from the 2020 Oscars ceremony?

Last Wednesday (30), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a statement trying to clarify what its role was during the in the comedian who made an offensive comment about the actor’s wife.

In its statement, the Academy apologized to the comedian and guests: “Mr. Rock, we apologize for the experience you had on our stage and thank you for your resilience at that time. We apologize to the other nominees for what happened at an event that should have been a moment of joy.”

The Academy concluded by saying that the organization’s staff tried to expel Will Smith from the place, however, the actor refused and was present until the end of the awards, also appearing at the After Party held by Variety magazine.

“Things quickly turned out to be what we didn’t expect. While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to withdraw from the event, which he declined, we also recognize that we should have handled the situation better.” said the statement

However, according to This never happened.

According to sources claiming to be part of the event’s production team, the team did approach Smith, however, it was to reassure him that he could continue to attend the event. The sources allege that during one of the commercial breaks, the producer walked directly to the actor and said: “We don’t want you to leave. We want you to stay.”

The source specified that Packer walked up to Smith thirty minutes after the slap happened, which would be an average of ten minutes before the actor won the Best Actor award for his performance in the film King Richard.