During the 94th Academy Awards ceremony held on March 28, 2022, Hollywood actor Will Smith slapped the host – comedian Chris Rock – after he cracked a joke about his wife’s health condition. The video immediately went viral on social media and drew strong reaction from celebrities.
Against this backdrop, an image of Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman is being widely shared on social media with a claim that this is how she reacted after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Oscars stage.
The image is being shared on Facebook with the caption, “#BREAKING Nicole Kidman reacting to the Chris Rock and Will Smith incident at the #Oscars”
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim and found it to be MISLEADING.
We searched for videos that captured uncensored moments of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock but could not find any such reaction from Nicole Kidman in any of the videos.
Further, we performed a Reverse Image Search and found the same viral image uploaded on Getty images with the caption, “Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban during the show at the 94th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 27, 2022.”
Searching further, we found a news article published by Vulture on March 28, 2022, with the headline, “This Is Actually Not a Picture of Nicole Kidman Reacting to The Slap.” The website confirmed with Myung Chun, the photographer of the Los Angeles Times who clicked the picture and he said, “Yes, the picture of Nicole Kidman was taken during the non-televised portion. It appeared that she was excited to see Jessica Chastain across the room. Kidman then reached out her arms and waved to her with both hands.” The website confirmed that the image was taken hours before Will Smith and Chris Rock’s altercation.
Searching further, we found several news reports that confirmed that the viral image is being shared out of context and it doesn’t show Nicole Kidman’s reaction to Will Smith and Chris Rock’s altercation. Check similar articles here and here.
Thus, it is evident from the above information that the viral claim is misleading.
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