the saga continues

Will Smith personally and publicly apologizes to Chris Rock. Was he sincere? Eternally angry Ryan Kinel (why do I keep watching this guy?) thinks not:

At Instapundit, a lot of commenters are absolutely sure that Will Smith's slap was staged. If Chris Rock looked genuinely startled, it could be because the slap went wrong somehow, or so say the commenters. I don't know; from the videos I saw, from multiple angles, Rock looked plenty shaken, and Smith looked genuinely angry when he took his seat after slapping Rock.

At this point, all I know is:

• Smith has apologized after basically getting away with assault in public.
• Smith is now being dogged by the "cuck" thing, which everyone is talking about because he and his wife Jada apparently have an open marriage, allowing Pinkett-Smith to sleep around (and this applies, presumably, to hubby as well). It seems to be a shaky marriage at best. Sexual libertinism almost never leads to anything good, but people keep not learning this.
• Rock isn't pressing charges. If the assault was real and not staged, then he's being a gentleman about the matter. If it was staged, then his being a gentleman is just part of the theatrics.
• The incident definitely brought attention to the Oscars, which still ended up being the second-lowest-rated Academy Awards ceremony ever.
• Not that they need more publicity, but Smith and Rock can publicly reconcile and somehow monetize that reconciliation.
• Future Oscars will likely be watched to see if something crazy happens again.

Hollywood is its own bubble-reality. The people in Hollywood are rich, privileged, and woefully out of touch. They behave however they want. Nevertheless, we hoi polloi eat this shit up (which is why this will be my final entry on the incident). Drama's essence is conflict, and when one guy slaps another, you get drama. I saw some people wryly noting that, if Will Smith had been white, he would have been arrested forthwith for slapping a black man. (I doubt we'll ever see such a thing happen in woke Hollywood.) Whatever the case may be, Hollywood is a zoo, but it's a soul-staining zoo we ought to avoid.