After his slap in the face of comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars, the mood in Hollywood heated up against Will Smith. His apology to Rock on Instagram had little effect. According to the entertainment portal “Showbiz 411”, the actor is now said to have gone to a sheikh in Dubai to sit out the unpleasant situation there.
Will Smith flown to Dubai by the Sheikh
Sources from journalist and blogger Roger Friedmans want to testify that Smith is currently staying in the United Arab Emirates with Sheikh Hamdan bin Muhammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The 39-year-old Hereditary Prince of Dubai is said to have flown in the actor himself.
On March 27, Will Smith slapped Rock after Rock made fun of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. The comedian obviously did not know that the bald head is not a fashion statement, but rather a result of an autoimmune disease that leads to hair loss. Since then, numerous Hollywood stars such as Jim Carrey and Michael Bay have commented on the incident and positioned themselves against Will Smith and his freak out. It was recently revealed that he was expelled from the Academy Awards and was resisting being kicked out. He narrowly escaped arrest thanks to Chris Rock’s appeasement of the police.
Will Smith and the sheik have a long friendship
It is no coincidence that Smith is said to have found accommodation with the sheik: the two have been in contact for several years and are good friends. As early as 2014 there was a photo showing Smith together with the Hereditary Prince in a sky diving facility. The Sheik – also known by the nickname “Fazza” – has 14 million followers on Instagram.
Will Smith had often been seen on his Instagram channel. Fazza thanked him several times for gifts from the actor, including an e-bike and Aladdin baby gifts for the birth of his twins last year. The personal address “Uncle Will”, which points to a close relationship between the two, is said to have fallen in this context. Last year, Will Smith filmed his weight loss documentary, The Best Shape of My Life, at Fazza’s home gym.
“I feel at home there”
The actor is said to have been very positive about his stays in Dubai in the past to “Esquire Middle East”: “There are just some places that suit you. Sometimes you just show up in places that you don’t know why they suit you, but they just suit you. Dubai dreams like I dream. I feel at home there, I feel inspired, I want to create and I want to be part of the ideas and the bridge between the Middle East and America and the West. I just feel that my gifts are particularly useful here. I want to be part of it.”
It is unclear where Jada Pinkett Smith is staying
So far it is unclear whether wife Jada Pinkett Smith has followed her husband to Dubai, according to “Showbiz 411”. Recently, US Weekly reported that while Pinkett Smith wasn’t “angry” with him, he wished he hadn’t violently attacked him. A video that went viral last week showed the 50-year-old amused by the slap in the face.
Meanwhile, Chris Rock still needs time to “process” the incident. On March 30, he only briefly commented on the gossip and then returned to his comedy program. Ticket sales for his upcoming stand-up tour were fueled by the attack: within two days of the slap, he had sold more than 25 times as many tickets as in the previous month.
+++ This article first appeared on rollingstone.de +++