Earlier this week, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actress Janet Hubert, who played Aunt Viv 1.0, launched a scathing video message directed at her former TV nephew Will Smith and his wife after Jada Pinkett Smith hinted at an Oscars boycott due to the lack of diversity in this year’s nominations. (Smith has since himself come forward saying that he would stand by his wife.)
For the most part, Hubert did raise some good points, but it would also be remiss not to mention that the actress has been intently grinding an axe for more than two decades now. In either case, the internet delighted in the shade being thrown around and eagerly awaited Pinkett Smith’s reaction.
The internet didn’t have to wait long, because in a video obtained by Entertainment Tonight, a marble-mouthed reporter caught Pinkett Smith at the New Orleans airport and asked what she thought of “the video that was put out by Aunt Viv.” Pinkett Smith immediately went into damage control-mode, launching into this rambley non-answer:
I will say this. Considering that Alabama had its highest recruitment for the KKK for Martin Luther King’s birthday, I hope that we as African-Americans can find a way to get along and step together. And here’s the deal. You know This whole Oscar controversy isn’t really about the Oscars. Really, in my plea to ask all communities and people of color to take back our power so that we can use it in all sectors of our community, and right now, specifically with African-American people, we have some very serious issues that I think we as a people have to move together on. So I’m hoping we can find ways to step together in this instead of finding ways to fight each other. I got love for everybody.
Well, that clears that up. Being that Smith was allegedly at least partially responsible for Hubert’s untimely exit from Fresh Prince, something tell us this “let’s all work together” business might not sit so well with her.
(Via Entertainment Tonight)
