Hollywood forgave Robert Downey Jr. for slapping Chris Rock. Will they forgive Will Smith?
John Salley says Will Smith and Chris Rock’s Oscar slap will be forgiven like Robert Downey Jr.
Exclusively to Vlad;
John Salley explained why he called Will Smith’s Oscars to smack a “human being human.” Will Smith’s emotions went rampant because he couldn’t control them.
John believes Smith will win because Hollywood will forgive him.
Robert Downey Jr. did several things before becoming Iron Man.
Downey was arrested for cocaine, heroin, and marijuana from 1996 to 2001. In 1999, he told a judge, “It’s like I have a shotgun in my mouth, my finger on the trigger, and I like the gunmetal.” His father, also an addict, gave him narcotics when he was 8 years old, he added.
In April 1996, Downey was traveling down Sunset Boulevard with heroin, cocaine, and an unloaded.357 Magnum. He trespassed into a neighbor’s home while on parole and fell asleep in one of the beds. He got three years probation and drug testing. He missed a court-ordered drug test in 1997 and was jailed for six months.
In 1999, Downey was arrested after missing another drug test. Despite Downey’s lawyer, Robert Shapiro, assembling the same team of lawyers that defended O. J. Simpson, Downey was sentenced to three years in prison at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California. All of Downey’s cinematic projects had wrapped and were nearing release. He was dismissed for missing rehearsals for the NBC cartoon series God, the Devil, and Bob.
After nearly a year in the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Downey was suddenly freed on $5,000 bail when a court concluded that his time in detention facilities (from the first 1996 arrests) qualified him for early release. After his 2000 release, Downey played a new love interest on Ally McBeal. He won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. On Vonda Shepard’s Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life CD, he wrote and sang “Every Breath You Take” with Sting. Downey believed his performance was overrated and that it was his lowest point in terms of addictions.
Before the end of his first season on Ally McBeal, authorities searched Downey’s room at Merv Griffin’s Hotel and Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, California. Downey was high on cocaine and Valium.
A paroled Downey was seen barefoot in Culver City in April 2001. He was arrested for drug use but freed hours later, despite having cocaine in his system. After Downey’s last arrest, Ally McBeal management forced last-minute rewrites and reshoots and fired him, despite the show’s improved ratings. Gibson’s Culver City arrest cost him a role in America’s Sweethearts and forced him to cancel Hamlet. Downey pleaded no guilty in July 2001, avoiding jail time.
Instead of jail, California Proposition 36 sent him to drug rehab and gave him three years of probation to help nonviolent drug offenders conquer their addictions.
Woody Allen wanted to cast Downey and Winona Ryder in Melinda and Melinda in 2003, but he couldn’t acquire insurance on them, saying, “We couldn’t get bonded.” Bonding companies wouldn’t back the film without insurance. I’d worked with Winona before [on Celebrity] and felt she’d be excellent for this. I’d long admired Bob Downey and wanted to work with him.
Will Smith hasn’t done anything wrong compared to Downey, so he’ll be back.
