Will Smith Just Pulled Off A Jeremy Clarkson ‘Fracas’ Live On TV
Jeremy Clarkson’s move away from Top Gear wasn’t a decision he made himself. After the well reported ‘fracas’ between the presenter and producer Oisin Tymon, the BBC refused to renew Clarkson’s contract, ending Top Gear as fans knew it forever. Richard Hammond and James May followed Clarkson into the unknown and fortunately landed on their feet with The Grand Tour.
It was reported that Jeremy punched the producer because of not only the lack of cooked food after a stint of filming, but because of a build up of pressure that Jeremy was feeling at the time, including a reported cancer scare. Now, after comedian Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith’s wife during the Oscars, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor joined him on stage before slapping him.
“Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see you,” Rock said live during the televised awards ceremony.
Will laughed but was quick to change his mind as he slapped the comedian before shouting at him from his seat.
“Will Smith just smacked the s*** out of me,” said Rock after the altercation.
“Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth,” Smith yelled at him twice.
“Wow… dude. It was a GI Jane joke.”
It’s since been confirmed that Chris Rock won’t be pressing charges, but with videos of this being watched by millions of people across the globe, it will be interesting to see how this affect’s Will Smith’s acting career in comparison to Jeremy’s presenting career.
Jeremy has come out of his altercation with extreme success, not only launching The Grand Tour to high praise, but Clarkson’s Farm, too. The latter became one of, if not the most highly praised shows ever yo be published to Amazon Prime Video, and from this he’s spawned a number of highly successful businesses including a lager company, Hawkstone Lager.
James May talked to the press years after the ‘fracas’, giving his side of the story:
“There was a huge amount of pressure at the time.
“I hate the idea of being smug about it, but we were the world’s biggest factual entertainment show – the biggest one in history, possibly.
“At that point [in 2015] it was reckoned it had something like 350-360 million viewers.
“It’s a huge number, and there is a pressure to keep it up. Occasionally it will boil over in one way or another.
“If we were AC/DC or Led Zeppelin, or the Rolling Stones and we were throwing up out the back of Rolls Royces or occasionally giving somebody a slap…
“Or if we were a professional football team misbehaving in a nightclub, people would go ‘oh that’s terrible, those rock stars…’
“It wasn’t really that different, being Top Gear. And on the whole, I think we behaved quite well.”