It’s been more than 22 weeks since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, and some, meaning Rock, still can’t stop talking about it. In front of an audience in Phoenix on Sunday night, the comedian explained that he turned down an invitation to host the Oscars ceremony next March, according to The Arizona Republic. Rock compared his situation to the brutal murder of Nicole Brown Simpson in a semi-coherent joke, saying that returning to the awards show would be like asking Simpson “to go back to the restaurant” where he dined hours before his death. (Simpson was killed in her Los Angeles home, along with bartender Ron Goldman, a friend who was apparently at the property to return a pair of glasses Simpson’s mother had left at the restaurant.) The academy did not immediately respond to a call or email from The Daily Beast seeking comment Monday.
Read it in The Arizona Republic