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Will Smith‘s stock continues to plummet well after his disturbing confrontation with Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards. And bigger than the hit that Smith laid on Rock may be the hit that The Fresh Prince’s slap has laid on his own career. The head honchos at Creative Artists Agency, which represents Smith, were reportedly at odds as to whether they should retain the 53-year-old actor or let him go.
According to The Daily Beast, CAA’s ruling three of Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett, and Kevin Huvane were divided with regard to Smith’s future at the agency. One hundred of CAA’s key personnel allegedly met at Cali’s swanky Terranea Resort to discuss possible next steps for handling one of their marquee talents.
The outlet says Lourd was in favor of booting Smith, especially since CAA is in the process of taking over its competitor ICM Partners (which represents Rock). By contrast, Lovett has Smith on the roster as a personal client, so he was “frazzled” by the whole matter but still voted to keep Smith on board.
However, another source told The Daily Beast that the reputed emergency meeting at Terranea Resort was fake news. “There is no truth to any of it,” an official CAA spokesperson said. “Simply never happened.”
“It is kind of crazy to think that this one incident could wipe away so many decades of goodwill,” The Wrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman told the BBC. “But it was so public, it was so outside of the box. One agent we talked to called it a ‘stunning act of narcissism’. The movie star brand for Will Smith is badly tarnished,” she added, saying that Hollywood insiders consider Smith’s future as an A-lister to be “mortally wounded.”
“I’m not giving Westbrook any projects,” one unnamed agent told The Wrap at the end of last month. “And I may even blow up the ones that I have that are currently in negotiations. What’s Westbrook without Will? Nothing.”
CAA already has the unfortunate honor of having represented Harvey Weinstein, one of only five people ever expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. And Smith resigned this past April 1 before the academy could take similar action, thereby adding him to that short unsavory list. Nevertheless, the academy will convene on April 15 to decide what further disciplinary action it will take against Smith and expulsion is still a possibility.
Mel Gibson, another Hollywood A-lister with an erratic past, was recently invited to Jesse Watters Primetime to promote his upcoming movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Father Stu. Towards the end of the segment, Watters asked Gibson the following question: “I was wondering if you had been the one that jumped up out of his seat and slapped Chris Rock, if you would’ve been treated the same way, Mel. Have you ever thought about that?”
Watch the clip below (around the 4:46 mark) to see Gibson’s reply.
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Photo: Getty
