Jeffrey Katzenberg compares Will Smith slap to Ukraine war
At Simon Wiesenthal Center banquet, mogul calls slap ‘intolerance on display’
Jeffrey Katzenberg at a 2019 conference. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
An influential Hollywood executive used his speech at a Simon Wiesenthal Center gala to criticize actor Will Smith.
Speaking Wednesday night at a Beverly Hills fundraiser for the Center’s Museum of Tolerance, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former head of Walt Disney Studios and co-founder of Dreamworks, said, “Unfortunately intolerance continues to be on the rise no matter where we look. We see it vividly on display whether it be far off on the battlefields of Ukraine or right here in Hollywood on the stage of the Dolby Theatre.”
The Dolby Theatre is the venue for the Oscars, where Smith slapped Chris Rock on March 27 after the comedian made a joke Smith found objectionable.
The number of powerful Hollywood executives and entertainers, combined with the fact that it was the first such large Hollywood gathering since the Oscars, made Katzenberg’s words even more influential, an executive at the event told the Daily Mail, which first reported the speech.
The gala drew some 700 attendees from the industry, including James Corden, who emceed the evening, Will.i.Am, LL Cool J and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine.
Co-chairs of the event included Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Ron Howard and JJ Abrams.
At the the gala, which raised $3.7 million for the museum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, was awarded the Center’s Medal of Freedom.
In 2009, Smith himself was a Wiesenthal Center gala honoree, receiving the Humanitarian Award at its National Tribute Dinner for his “commitment to education, cultural diversity, and social responsibility.” The master of ceremonies at the event was Katzenberg.
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