Jimmy Kimmel Doesn’t Want to ‘Make Light’ of Will Smith Slap at 2023 Oscars: ‘It’s Got to Come Up’

usmagazine.com:

No avoiding it? Jimmy Kimmel is already preparing to host the 2023 Oscars — and he’s pretty sure the infamous Will Smith slap will still be the talk of the night.“It’s got to come up in some way,” the late-night host, 55, told Extra shortly after being announced as the emcee of the 95th annual Academy Awards. “You know, I don’t want to really make light of it necessarily, because it wasn’t [light] to comedians.

You know, comedians are mad about it. … It’s like, it’s one of those things that for a group of people that find everything funny, it’s, like, not funny, you know?

But of course … when they read the wrong winner one year when I hosted the Oscars, we had to make mention of that the next year.”Kimmel has hosted the awards show twice before: first in 2017 and again in 2018. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway incorrectly announced La La Land as the best picture winner at the 2017 ceremony — the trophy ended up going to Moonlight — and the flub was the most-talked about moment of the night.When he returned to the Oscars the following year, the Brooklyn native didn’t shy away from poking fun at the mistake. “This year, when you hear your name called, don’t get up right away.

Just give us a minute,” he teased during his monologue. “We don’t want another thing.”The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host continued: “What happened last year was unfortunate, and I’ve not told this story in public because I wanted to save it for tonight.