Susie O’Brien: Hollywood’s woke circle of doom no laughing matter

Few of the Hollywood elite have held Will Smith to account for trying to dismiss violence as an act of love, while those who spoke out had the pack turn on them in a woke circle of doom.

If Ricky Gervais had hosted this week’s Oscars, he would barely have made it out alive.

As Golden Globes host he has criticised actors for being friends with Harvey Weinstein, urged them to collect their awards and f--- off, and made fun of their sanctimonious political speeches. In Gervais’s eyes, nothing is off limits.

“I’m going to be nice tonight, I’ve changed … not as much as Bruce Jenner,” he said in 2016.

“It’s going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking – or, as Charlie Sheen calls it … breakfast,” he said, the same night.

And do you remember this one from 2020? “Lots of big celebrities tonight. Legends. Icons. This table alone – Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro … Baby Yoda. Oh, that’s Joe Pesci, sorry, I love you, man. Don’t have me whacked.”

This kind of childish humour has been around for years, even at the much more conservative Oscars.

In the eyes of Ricky Gervais, no jokes are off limits. Picture: Getty Images

In 1988, Chevy Chase opened the night with the line: “Good evening, Hollywood phonies”.

And in 2012, Billy Crystal noted that “nothing can take the sting out of economic problems like watching millionaires collecting gold statues”.

Comedian Chris Rock has done it for years. In 2016 he called the Oscars the “White People’s Choice Awards” – the same year actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett boycotted for the lack of racial diversity.

That year Rock could not resist a dig at his old frenemies: “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.” Ouch.

Will Smith couldn’t play along nicely and accept a lame joke at his wife’s expense. Picture: AFP

A delicious feeling of satisfaction comes when the world’s richest, most feted actors have to sit there and take crap from a comedian in front of 50 million people.

So, when Chris Rock was invited on stage to do his thing in 2022 and help rescue the ailing Oscars with a bit of old-time banter, no one expected him to get slapped for it.

But the problem was that Will Smith, one of the world’s biggest stars, couldn’t play along nicely and accept a lame joke at his wife’s expense. He hit Rock on stage.

What did the big stars do? Nothing. They gave Smith a standing ovation when he received his award and treated him like a king at the Vanity Fair after-party.

In today’s woke America, a successful black actor is not held to account by the same standards as a white one, or a less famous one.

Would the reaction be different if Smith wasn’t a powerful black man who has marched against violence and boycotted the Oscars for being too white? You bet.

Most alarmingly, those who dared to speak up and call Smith what he was – a violent idiot who tried to use love to excuse his thuggery – had the pack turn on them.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former basketball player, perfectly described Smith’s blow as an act that “advocated violence, diminished women, insulted the entertainment industry, and perpetuated stereotypes about the black community”.

And what happened to him? Someone pointed out that he once hit another player in the 1970s.

One minute Zoe Kravitz was on top as part of the new Batman movie; now she’s virtually a pedophile. Picture: AFP

Actor Jim Carrey said Smith “should have been arrested” and suddenly old clips surfaced of him kissing Alicia Silverstone on stage, which was now characterised as an “assault”.

And there’s actor Zoe Kravitz, who described Smith as “assaulting people on stage” and suddenly people pointed out that she’s friends with designer Alexander Wang who’s been accused of sexual harassment and assault. She was also found to have made disparaging remarks about Jaden Smith when he was 14.

One minute Kravitz was on top as part of the new Batman movie; now she’s virtually a pedophile.

Even Chris Rock copped it, with some people dredging up comments he made about Asian kids in a skit years ago, and for using the n-word.

Let’s call it a woke circle of doom; a way for powerful people to put others in their place using their woke privilege.

Kevin hart claims he was sacked as Oscars host due to some 10-year-old tweets he apologised for at the time and deleted. Picture: Getty Images

The same thing happened to Kevin Hart, who claims he was sacked as Oscars host due to some 10-year-old tweets he apologised for at the time and deleted.

The great hypocrisy is that the room that night was full of the richest, most influential people in Hollywood who have marched in support of marriage equality, Black Lives Matter and #metoo.

But few have been game to hold Smith to account for being violent to another man then trying to dismiss it as an act of love for his partner. They shouldn’t be chugging champagne, they should be reading See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill.

As Gervais once told a Golden Globes audience: “Let’s have a laugh at your expense, shall we? Remember, they’re just jokes.”

Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist