Jada Pinkett Smith is one of the most outspoken people in Hollywood, but there are plenty of folks who wish she would just keep quiet and look after her own affairs.
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00:00Jada Pinkett Smith is one of the most outspoken people in Hollywood,
00:04but there are plenty of folks who wish she would just keep quiet and look after her own affairs.
00:09Stacey Dash had a few choice words for Jada Pinkett Smith over the latter's decision to
00:13boycott the Academy Awards in 2016 after the acting categories' nominees were made up of
00:18only white individuals for the second year in a row. As Smith wrote on Facebook,
00:22At the Oscars, people of color are always welcome to give out awards,
00:26even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments. Should people
00:31of color refrain from participating altogether? During an episode of Fox & Friends,
00:35Dash called Smith's plan ludicrous, while adding,
00:38We have to make up our minds. Either we want to have segregation or integration."
00:43Dash went on to propose the idea of getting rid of awards shows like the BET Awards,
00:47in which only African-American artists are recognized, in an effort to promote integration.
00:52As she explained,
00:53If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms. It's a double standard.
00:57Stacey Dash wasn't the only one who spoke out against Smith's decision to boycott the Oscars,
01:02as late actor Alexis Arquette also had some choice words. She took a somewhat different
01:06tack, though, taking aim at what she saw as some underlying issues with Smith's marriage
01:10to demonstrate why she couldn't take her seriously. As Arquette wrote on Facebook,
01:14When Jada comes out as gay and her beard husband admits his first marriage ended
01:18when she walked into him servicing his sugar daddy, Benny Medina, then I will listen to them.
01:22Arquette then clarified in the comments that the person she claimed walked in on Will Smith
01:26and Medina, a high-profile producer whose credits include The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,
01:30was Smith's first wife, Cherie Zampino. While Arquette was clearly frustrated with Jada,
01:35she reserved her greatest ire for Will, as she also claimed,
01:38Will threw a fit on the set of Six Degrees of Separation when he was required by the
01:42scene to kiss Anthony Michael Hall. Neither Jada nor Will have publicly responded to Arquette's
01:46accusations.
01:48Jada Pinkett Smith isn't exactly best friends with some of her husband's former co-stars.
01:52Janet Hubert, who originated the role of Aunt Viv on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,
01:56had a tumultuous relationship with Will, which ultimately led to her role being recast after
02:00three seasons, so it wasn't too surprising when she also didn't support Jada's decision
02:04to skip the Academy Awards. As Hubert wrote on Facebook,
02:07First of all, Miss Thing, does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?
02:11She then took aim at Jada's misguided focus on an awards show, writing,
02:15There's a lot of s— going on in the world that you don't seem to recognize. People are dying,
02:19being shot left and right, people are hungry, people are struggling to pay bills,
02:23and you're talking about actors and Oscars. It just ain't that deep."
02:26And Hubert didn't stop there, as she also noted,
02:28For you to ask other actors and actresses to jeopardize their career and standing in this town,
02:33you know damn well you don't do that. A few weeks later, though, Hubert pulled back on
02:37her criticism, making it clear that she respected Jada and even somewhat agreed with her.
02:42This didn't just start this year. This started way back when the Oscars first, you know,
02:48came up. Came in, yes."
02:50Jada apparently isn't keeping up with the Kardashians anymore. She and her husband
02:54had been close with the famous family for years after running in the same circles,
02:57but then a certain Red Table Talk guest managed to split Jada and Kris Jenner apart.
03:01The issue arose in 2019, after Jada had Jordyn Woods, Kylie Jenner's best friend at the time,
03:06on the show. Woods confessed that she had kissed Tristan Thompson,
03:09Khloe Kardashian's on-again-off-again boyfriend, which led to a major divide between Woods and the
03:14Kardashians. After the interview aired, fans quickly noted that Jada had unfollowed Kris
03:18and Khloe, as well as Kim Kardashian, on social media. Viewers speculated that she was taking
03:22Woods' side in the conflict, especially since Woods' late father had worked as a sound engineer
03:27on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air decades earlier. Despite unfollowing Kim, Khloe, and Kris,
03:32Jada continued to follow Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Will Smith reportedly attempted to
03:36reach out to Khloe to smooth things over, with a source telling The Sun,
03:39"[The Smith family know the Kardashians really well. They were all at Kim's wedding to Kanye,
03:43and so Will picked up the phone to speak to Khloe. Jordyn is just 21 and naive.
03:47She didn't mean to hurt anyone. Will always supports her and considers her family."
03:52Red Table Talk came to an end in April 2023, and it seemed like nobody was happier about it than
03:57Nick Cannon. As he declared on his radio show, The Daily Cannon, if there was no Red Table Talk,
04:02then Will wouldn't have slapped the s— out of Chris Rock. Cannon was, of course,
04:05referring to the infamous incident at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022,
04:09when Will Smith responded violently to a joke that Rock made about Jada's hair loss.
04:14Cannon also called Red Table Talk that toxic table and added,
04:17"'Too much honesty can get your ass slapped in the face.'"
04:22Cannon also called out Jada for bringing her marital issues to her own show in 2020,
04:26when she admitted to being involved in a so-called entanglement with artist August Alsina around 2016.
04:32"'Yes, it was a relationship, absolutely. I was in a lot of pain, and I was very broken.'"
04:38Will and Jada separated for seven years following the incident,
04:41though they have since reconciled. Cannon wasn't buying their candidness, however,
04:44as he admitted that he no longer looks up to them as couple goals. As he put it,
04:48"'That was royalty, Will and Jada. Then they brought it to the table.
04:51I don't want to know all this s— about y'all.'"
04:54Jada Pinkett Smith and Chris Rock were once attached at the hip,
04:57but her 2016 Academy Awards boycott caused a bit of a rift between them.
05:01Rock was actually hosting the Oscars that year, and he took the opportunity to joke about Jada and
05:05her husband during his opening monologue, as he quipped,
05:08"'Jada's mad her man Will was not nominated for concussion.'"
05:11Then came the infamous slap at the 2022 Oscars. In October 2023, Jada told People magazine that
05:17she hadn't spoken to Rock since that incident, but also revealed that their differences began
05:21years earlier, as she explained,
05:23"'I think that there might be some misunderstanding between Chris and I
05:26as far as the 2016 Oscars. I think that he might have taken offense,
05:29which I meant no harm in offending.'"
05:31Rock attempted to apologize right after the 2022 incident, but Jada felt that it wasn't
05:36the time to hash things out, as she revealed,
05:38"'Chris came down to the end of the stage and tried to apologize to me. He said,
05:41I didn't mean you any harm. I said, I can't talk about this now, Chris. This is some old s—.'"
05:46Jada also revealed that Rock's joke about her shaved head wasn't the only time she's
05:50been offended by him, as she admitted,
05:52"'I'll say that several times I've had my feelings hurt for sure. I've had my
05:55feelings hurt a lot by Chris. But at the end of the day, too, being in the spotlight,
05:59it comes with the territory.'"
06:01Sports personality Stephen A. Smith was among several individuals who rallied behind Will
06:05Smith in the midst of his and Jada's separation and tumultuous marital journey. On an episode
06:09of The Stephen A. Smith Show podcast, the host threw some serious shade at Jada for being so
06:14open about her extramarital affair. As he put it,
06:16"'Let me tell y'all what Will Smith does not deserve. He does
06:19not deserve what Jada Pinkett Smith has done to him.'"
06:22"'You can't treat that man like that. It's none of our business.'"
06:26Stephen A. Smith also criticized Jada for what he called an emasculation in the public eye.
06:31"'He's Will Smith! How much smaller do you wanna make him?'
06:3950 Cent is known for his string of public beefs, so it perhaps wasn't too surprising
06:43when he called out Jada Pinkett Smith for her checkered past in 2023. The controversy
06:47was sparked that October when Jada admitted to selling crack cocaine in Baltimore when
06:51she was a teenager. She told People magazine that she didn't have the best influences in
06:55her life while growing up with drug addict parents, which pushed her to fend for herself
06:59to get by. As she put it,
07:01"'I knew that anything that I needed was something I needed to provide for.
07:04I decided to sell drugs.'"
07:05But 50 Cent wasn't impressed by Jada's will to survive by any means necessary.
07:09In fact, he apparently even decided to try to rescue her husband, as he went on social
07:14media to declare,
07:15"'All right. Enough is enough. Free Will Smith. WTF is going on?''
07:19Political strategist and TV personality Anna Navarro had some choice words for Jada during
07:24an episode of The View in 2023, specifically regarding the latter's memoir. As Navarro
07:29joked,
07:29"'I kinda feel like I know more about their marriage than my own damn marriage.'"
07:33She speculated that Jada was engaging in a publicity stunt by remarking,
07:37"'Every time she needs to increase the ratings of the Red Table,
07:39every time she needs to sell books, she drops these bombshells. I find it unseemly.'"
07:44Jada responded to Navarro's comments on the radio show The Breakfast Club,
07:47advising her to take the time to actually read her book. She also explained that while
07:51she respects a different point of view, her critics should do their research,
07:54not just about her own book, but also regarding her husband's 2021 memoir, Will. As she put it,
08:00"'People have the right to their opinions, you know, and I always know that anybody who's
08:03saying that hasn't really done their homework.'"
08:06"'Will knows what it is. I know what it is. My kids know what it is. And more importantly,
08:12Great Supreme does, too.'"
08:14Rapper Rick Ross wasn't exactly on Jada Pinkett Smith's side when her marriage woes went public.
08:19In fact, he even collaborated with her former lover, August Alsina, on the 2020 track
08:24Entanglements, which seemed to be a direct response to Jada's comments about their so-called
08:28relationship. Ross also spoke about Jada in an interview with Rolling Stone, saying he wasn't
08:32impressed with how she carried herself in public. As he put it,
08:35"'I don't think I agree with Jada Pinkett. To me,
08:37she's psychologically lost and needs some counseling. Jesus, what you going to tell us
08:41next?' He also took a shot at her memoir Worthy, claiming it wasn't a hit because, quote,
08:46"'She already told us everything.'"
08:48He then threw some serious shade at Jada's film career, as he sniped,
08:51"'You were in the movie Set It Off, and that's all we know you from. You got 15K
08:55for that role and that's it. Calm down.'"
08:57As for Jada's affair with her son's close friend? You f----- your son's best friend.
09:01You said your son introduced you to psychedelics. What's next?