Jamie Reidy shares video of Will Smith being kissed by a male reporter on the red carpet and then smacking the guy in the face.
(Read this with the Direct TV commercial narrator’s voice) Don’t kiss Will Smith on the mouth.
TMZ has video of a jackass reporter kissing the actor during a red carpet interview:
I bet Will wishes those memory-zapping shades from MEN IN BLACK actually worked, so he could never have to think about this incident again.
Would Will Smith have been within his rights to punch this idiot reporter in the mouth?
Photo by: Walmart Stores
About Jamie Reidy
He is within his rights.
Walking up to someone, and trying to kiss them in the mouth is an attempted sexual assault.
Also under British law, It is defined as common assault when one person intentionally touches another person. So the reporter assaulted Will and Will assaulted the reporter back. The reporter is the one who would have a case to answer.
This is priceless….
Alright question…if the reporter had been a woman, would you be saying the same thing? Would you be suggesting that Will Smith might want to erase the memory entirely? Would you suggest he would be within his rights to punch the reporter? If she were pretty would that make a difference?
Or, might you be joking about how the woman probably feels lucky to kiss a movie star? Or if she were pretty, maybe make a joke about how you wouldn’t mind kissing her, etc?
HeatherN,
I already had the pleasure of reading this sort of nonsense discussion on Jezebel.
Here’s the thing, in our society, men are not allowed to hit women, If the reporter was a woman, the current question would be “Is Will Smith going to face charges?”
But people, in general, are allowed to hit aggressive men. If Meryl Streep slapped a man who tried to kiss her on the lips, no one would be asking any of these questions. The issue would be open and shut because men enjoy no similar protections against violence used defensively.
Yet somehow this obvious expression of female privilege, not having to worry about punishment for striking an aggressive man in public, is lost on people that wish to twist this into a story about man-on-man kissing.
This has everything to do with the maxim “You never hit a woman” that all little boys are told, and nothing to do with a man getting kissed by a man.
“If Meryl Streep slapped a man who tried to kiss her on the lips, no one would be asking any of these questions.”
Yeah, I’d be asking the exact same questions, actually. The reason this is about “man-on-man kissing” is not to do with the physical response, though that’s part of it. It’s about the emotional response. Would you (general you) expect a man to feel like his space/body had been intruded on if he had been kissed by a woman? Probably, not. Why? Well in part because society expects men to want sex (and anything to do with sex) all the time, and expects that men don’t really care who they do it with, so long as it’s a woman. So that’s why it becomes accepted that Will Smith reacted as he did when it was a man who kissed him. In our society, it becomes okay for a man to assert personal physical boundaries when it’s in regards to his interaction with another man. In fact, it’s not only okay, but it’s expected. If Will Smith hadn’t reacted as he did, his sexuality might come into question, etc.
It’s intersectionality, Mike. Prescribed behaviour based on gender identity and perceived sexual orientation are both at play in this instance. That’s why I asked those questions.
So what’s the “win” scenario in this for Will Smith? (who is, after all, the one who was assaulted – if thats the proper term-here.)
Either he pretends to be “okay” with the assault, which he isn’t, or he reacts the way he did, and has a bunch of people label him some sort of homophobe.
Seriously, what you have had him do?
People are trying to make this into some kind of political statement, and it shouldn’t be.
Right I think my comment is being misunderstood. My point wasn’t that Will Smith shouldn’t have reacted the way he did. Bodily autonomy…everyone has a right not to be touched (or kissed) without their permission. My point is that there’s a problem when the expected reactions for an uninvited hetero kiss and an uninvited same-sex kiss are different. I’m not saying Smith shouldn’t have been bothered…I’m just questioning whether he would have been as bothered if it’d been a woman.
That’s why my original comment was a series of questions directed at Jamie. The idea that Smith would want to completely erase the event from his mind, it was that bad….particularly struck me. Would Jamie have said the same thing if the reporter had been a woman?
My point is that there’s a problem when the expected reactions for an uninvited hetero kiss and an uninvited same-sex kiss are different.
Its the result of the way men are socialized when it comes to such contact.
Chances are most guys (in the States anyway) would be more bothered by a uninvited same-sex kiss because an uninvited hetero kiss, even if uninvited still conforms to the notion that “real men are straight”. Hell you could say that that the fact that it was uninvited affirms the “a man’s attraction is based on the number of women that want him” idea.
So even an uninvited kiss has some value, as long as its hetero.
I’m just questioning whether he would have been as bothered if it’d been a woman.
I wager that even if he were bothered by such a kiss there is a chance he would play it off as “look at how the ladies are all over me” and the next time he appears on a talk show it would come up.
Would Jamie have said the same thing if the reporter had been a woman?
Probably only if it were a woman that was considered unattractive.
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was getting at.
Does the fact that we know Will Smith to be hetero (of course he could be lying and putting on a big life-long show, but let’s assume that his marriage, children with two different women, etc prove he’s hetero) change the way we “should” be perceiving his reaction?
Perhaps he wouldn’t have reacted that way if a gorgeous woman had kissed him, but does that make him a homophobe? No. It makes him heterosexual.
One of my really good friends is a lesbian. AND a celebrity. I can tell you with near certainty that if this man had kissed her like this, he would’ve been lucky if she’d been as gentle to him as Will Smith was to this guy. However, if a woman had kissed her like this, she would most likely have pulled away (depending on who the woman was, if she were single, and where she was, haha) and said, “Don’t do that.” and be freaked out but not actually scared or threatened. Does that make her a heterophobe?
Do you get my point? It’s two-fold. First, Smith is a heterosexual man, so he doesn’t want any man kissing him. Second, if it were a woman, he wouldn’t probably see her as a physical threat to his safety as much as he would a man. This may possibly be misandry, but I think it’s most likely more about the physicality of a man vs a woman.
As for Jamie saying he may want to forget about it, reverse it to be Ellen DeGeneres (whom I don’t know in real life, just for clarification). If she were kissed on a red carpet by a man, most likely Jamie would say the same as he would about Smith being kissed by a man – because they have publicly declared, each of them, that they don’t like to kiss men!
If DeGeneres had been kissed by a gorgeous woman on the red carpet, there would probably be the same reaction to it as we would to Smith being kissed by a gorgeous woman.
Right again, I’m not saying Smith should have necessarily reacted differently. The more information I’m getting, it’s sounding like a cultural misunderstanding that went both ways. That’s fine. Again, as I mentioned, bodily autonomy. People should have control of who touches their body (and how). The problem is the way that someone’s sexual orientation (or perceived sexual orientation) affects the reaction to an invasion of a person’s physical space.
Also, as for your comparisons to if Will Smith was replaced in this scenario with a lesbian…well the problem with that actually stems back to normativity and privilege. Heterophobia exists, but it doesn’t have the same social consequences. It isn’t nearly as normalized. Right, so if a man were to kiss me like that, I wouldn’t worry that my sexual orientation would be called into question, or that my gender performance might be called into question. And even if it were, being assumed to be straight doesn’t carry any social stigma to it. So in that case, a lesbian who reacted to a man who kisses her is not doing it to re-affirm their normative sexual and gender identities (consciously or subconsciously).
And finally, I’d really just like to clarify that I am not, in any way, suggesting that Smith or Jamie are homophobic. Goodness gracious, no. I was just saying that Smith’s reaction and this article are perhaps a bit heteronormative.
I saw this on “Pop Watch: Entertainment Weekly”
“PopWatch’s revelation that the hand-checked man in question was Vitalii Sediuk, a semi-notorious snickerer of a TV journalist who is known for such stunts didn’t seem to cut the conversation short.
Folks, look at that picture. Smith appears genuinely put out, which strikes me as a reasonable response to a stranger trying to smush his or her tongue in your mouth. Meanwhile Sediuk is grinning like an idiot, well aware that he’s hit pay dirt by eliciting a swift and dramatic response from such an affable movie star. Sediuk is the same fellow who, with feigned earnestness, gave a scornful Madonna that bouquet of hydrangeas. Admittedly, she behaved like a miserable snot but the craven videos of Sediuk smugly preening about her poor form are equally obnoxious.”
Much ado about nothing at this point.
Ah well, there ya go, then.
Vitali has done a superb job of getting press, though!
Makes perfect sense.
My time in Hollywood has made me hate these guys… However — as far as the shit I’ve seen from paparazzi (including toward me) this seems pretty minor.
Lesson to all – don’t touch people unless they ask you to.
“Would you (general you) expect a man to feel like his space/body had been intruded on if he had been kissed by a woman? Probably, not. Why? Well in part because society expects men to want sex (and anything to do with sex) all the time, and expects that men don’t really care who they do it with, so long as it’s a woman. So that’s why it becomes accepted that Will Smith reacted as he did when it was a man who kissed him.”
Some men are physically repulsed by other men..especially when it comes to affection. This true from a very early age. I remember avoiding not wanting physical contact with men starting at the age of 4 or maybe even earlier. I didn’t like hugging my Dad whereas I did like hugging my Mom. I believed at the time that I should like both equally but I didn’t feel that way.
I don’t think this is cultural, I think its biological.
“I don’t think this is cultural, I think its biological.”
Correct.
Incorrect…it’s both. The level of physical intimacy that people are comfortable with (either same-gendered or different-gendered) varies widely from culture to culture. It also varies widely from person to person…and this is where it could be biological. I’m very sensitive to whether people are invading my personal space, regardless of their gender. Is that biological or cultural? Well, I was hugged as a kid, and I never had any traumatic experiences involving uninvited physical contact…so yeah it’s probably biological to some degree.
Perhaps you are aware of societies where heterosexual men welcome being mouth kissed by men as equally to being mouth kissed by a women. I haven’t ever heard of any such, which leads to it being biological.
And, unless there are an equal number of societies where men welcome mouth kissing from other men equal to mouth kissing from women, that too shows that at least the vast majority of his reaction was due to biology, not culture.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=cultures+where+men+kiss+on+the+lips&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=Qvy4T4LnCMmk8gOXssipCg
So yes, there are cultures out there where men kiss each other without a problem. Kissing is not always sexual….hell, even between two gay men a kiss isn’t necessarily sexual. What a kiss means is entirely cultural.
(Also, yes I stole that link from Julie in a comment below).
As I said “unless there are an equal number of societies where men welcome mouth kissing from other men equal to mouth kissing from women, that too shows that at least the vast majority of his reaction was due to biology, not culture.”
As compared to a rare minority, as shown in these links.
I watched the supplied video, as far as I can tell it was not a mouth to mouth kiss, despite what Smith says afterwards.
If Will Smith had been raised in some European countries, the kiss on both cheeks would seem as natural as a handshake; but he is North American, so is unfamiliar with the practice. His tap on the face was hardly a blow; I think he set his boundaries effectively without real violence.
Will didn’t claim it was a mouth to mouth kiss. Will claimed it was an attempted mouth to mouth kiss. If you watch the video, you can see the reporter trying to hold Will’s neck/head in place. The only reason why he didn’t succeed in kissing Will on the mouth was because Will managed to turn his head at the last moment so that the kiss landed on his cheek instead.
“Would you (general you) expect a man to feel like his space/body had been intruded on if he had been kissed by a woman? Probably, not. Why?”
Because most heterosexual men don’t find being kissed on the mouth by a strange woman as repulsive and being kissed by a strange man.
“Well in part because society expects men to want sex (and anything to do with sex) all the time, and expects that men don’t really care who they do it with, so long as it’s a woman.”
Uh, no. his reaction had nothing whatsover to do with societal expectation. It was due to what I said above.
“If Will Smith hadn’t reacted as he did, his sexuality might come into question, etc.”
For rational reasons, as I explained above.
Fixing typo.
Because most heterosexual men don’t find being kissed on the mouth by a strange woman as repulsive as being kissed on the mouth by a strange man.
Heterosexual men would be more ok with a member of the opposite sex kissing them, vs the same sex. That is normal, it’s not homophobic. I’d be weirded out by a strange woman kissing me and even more so with a strange man because I am not attracted to men, I don’t want them to kiss me, touch me intimately or have sex with them but I do desire those things with women. I’m sure many could find other reasons to be creeped out, hell just the risk of infection bothers me. Nothing wrong with being repulsed with someone crossing your boundaries.
Hmm, I’ll refer you to my comment here. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have been creeped out by someone crossing his boundaries. I’m saying the gender of the person crossing his boundaries shouldn’t matter. If an unknown woman kissed me like that (and they weren’t European and obviously kissing me hello or goodbye) then I’d be creeped out. Doesn’t matter that they’re the gender I’m attracted to…they aren’t an individual I’m interested in having sex with. I didn’t give them permission to kiss me…so if they do then that is creepy.
“I’m sure many could find other reasons to be creeped out, hell just the risk of infection bothers me.”
Yeah I’m not understanding what this is in reference to?
Plenty of illness is transmitted via saliva and mucus as far as I know, I’d be annoyed at a random trying to kiss me due to that alone regardless of the risk %. It’s assault. Hell police get worried when people spit in their face, and take infection tests don’t they?
Right but I don’t get what that has to do with the gender of the person…
If the reporter had been a woman – He would have still felt his space and body integrity was invaded but be unable to really take any action about it; save for filing charges and even then given the societal standard that would have not been a real satisfactory redress for him. Anyone regardless of gender who willfully and intentionally invades another persons body integrity without asking is wrong.
yea whatever..
If Meryl Streep slapped a man who tried to kiss her on the lips, no one would be asking any of these questions. The issue would be open and shut because men enjoy no similar protections against violence used defensively.
I don’t think it would be “no one” but more like “damn near no one” (HeatherN you’re cool for saying you would but I think you’d be outnumbered).
Also I don’t think it would be open and shut. I think if a male reporter tried to kiss Meryl Streep and she slapped him it would become fodder for the “men think its okay to violate the boundaries of women” article. And one other word: Creep.
PS Newsflash – celebrities have people trying to kiss them, grab them, jump on them, etc ALL THE TIME. That’s why they have bodyguards.
Generally, celebs don’t slap people who try to do this because they worry about countersuit, but it’s been known to happen. Many times. Most of the people who try to actually kiss a celebrity are probably looking to be slapped so they can sue. Paparazzi love being shoved and hit because it means they can sue the celebrity in question. Even if they have no case, often they get paid off just so as to not put the celebrity through the annoyance.
One paparazzi tried to do it with me (because I was with someone famous they wanted to get to), but then when I called the cops, and the paparazzo ended up spending 9 days in jail and getting a 2 year-long restraining order against the place where he actually worked… Most of them learned their lessons in harassing average people.
People are harder on celebrities, but in general ANYONE who gets physically touched by someone first – be it kissing, shoving, whatever – has the right to defend themselves.
Well said, celebrities deserve personal space and privacy too.
I wasn’t trying to say that celebrities don’t have a right to protect their personal space. But what I am saying is that this incident with Will Smith is not very likely to lead people to start firing off articles about how MEN (not reporters, not paparazzi) like to violate the boundaries of men.
But in what said about Streep there would certainly be the obvious angle of reporters/paparazzi trying to violate the boundaries of celebrities, and there would also be an extra angle of, “men think its okay to violate the boundaries of women”.
My comment wasn’t about the right to protect yourself from people trying to get in your space, it was about how attempts to get in your space would be covered differently depending on gender.
Or to put it a little short if this were Streep and not Smith would the creep references have come out sooner? I think they would.
Also, in my years working with celebrities, I can tell you that paparazzi and fame-stalkers violate the personal space of both male and female celebs equally.
But as someone who’s had that space violated, it’s pretty terrifying to be 5’6″ and 110lbs surrounded by about 10 guys over 5’10″ whom you know might make $10,000+ for a photo of the person you’re with.
That much money makes people crazy. I can only imagine if you had kids with you and the paps were doing that. I don’t think it’s less scary for ALL men, but I do think that it most likely is scarier for anyone who is small. Also, there’s this odd sexual aggressiveness to the paps as well. I don’t know how the men feel about that, but those guys have had no problem commenting on my body. But that isn’t nearly as bad as when I got shoved in the dirt by paparazzi.
I think size is a huge reason women feel threatened by men – especially groups of men. And if you don’t know what it feels like to be the smallest person in a big group of much bigger people, it might be hard to empathize with that.
I have totally gone off on an unrelated tangent, though.
I’m still fine with Will Smith slapping him, but if I worked for him I would warn him he’d probably get sued. But knowing who this kisser is now (thanks Julie) I’m certain there won’t be any lawsuits.
I think size is a huge reason women feel threatened by men – especially groups of men. And if you don’t know what it feels like to be the smallest person in a big group of much bigger people, it might be hard to empathize with that.
I’ll say that I don’t know how it feels to be the smallest person in a large crowd as my experiences comes from the other end, being the largest person in a large crowd knowing that people think you’re a threat because of your size.
“Also, there’s this odd sexual aggressiveness to the paps as well. I don’t know how the men feel about that, but those guys have had no problem commenting on my body. But that isn’t nearly as bad as when I got shoved in the dirt by paparazzi.”
Sorry to hear you went through that. I haven’t experienced it, but I gather papparazzi do that kind of stuff to get a reaction shot.
“Alright question…if the reporter had been a woman, would you be saying the same thing? Would you be suggesting that Will Smith might want to erase the memory entirely?”
I know I would.
Is there any reason anyone touched or kissed couldn’t just push the person away instead of slapping? Get the bodyguards in action to take the guy/gal down? It looked like he was pushing him away, trying to get away and the guy kept at him and he pushed and smacked. I had the impression that the guy was doing a Euro cheek kiss thing, not a “i love you” kiss thing.
I think most celebs would be pushy, smacky if someone tried to kiss them like that. Celebs don’t like being chased around by paparazzi or touched by strangers.
We don’t know his history, for all we know Will may have been abused so his reactions can vary based on instinct, previous history and experience, etc. I’m surprised he didn’t start floating like a butterfly and laid him out. I think it was a warning slap, and quite frankly rightly deserved.
Don’t know if he was abused or anything, but he certainly seemed a little shocked.
“I had the impression that the guy was doing a Euro cheek kiss thing, not a “i love you” kiss thing.”
That’s what I get for reading the article but not watching the video…because yeah it does look like it could have been a Euro cheek kiss thing. Do we know who that reporter is? I’d love to know where he’s from and so on…because it really could just be a cultural misunderstanding. I mean, the hug was obviously all right with Smith. Perhaps the reporter hadn’t realized a hello-kiss would be out of line.
Or maybe the guy was invading Smith’s space. Difficult to tell without knowing more.
Yeah, I got that too, but kissing someone on the cheek (in France or Spain) is usually something you do with a close friend or relative. Not really something you do to someone you’ve just met… from a country where that isn’t the norm… in a country where that isn’t the norm.
I’d say yeah he stepped over the bounds a bit.
Yeah. Though I had a couple or really surprising examples of a couple of German people, and a French guy, giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek goodbye after the first time I met them.
But yes, even if that was what he was trying to do, seeing as he was in the U.S. and a reporter, he should have been aware.
They were in Russia for the MIB 3 premiere. It was a Ukrainian in Russia.
Oh! Well then, for goodness sake. If this was a Russian reporter, I’d bet my gaming computer that he was just giving a friendly cheek kiss.
For the second kiss he was holding Will’s head in place while trying to kiss him on the mouth. He didn’t succeed because Will (barely) managed to turn his head to make the kiss land on his right cheek, after which he pushed him away. Watch the video.
It’s in Russia? Sorry, thought it was in the UK. That puts it in a slightly different light, but not completely different. Will Smith still reacted to what he probably saw as an invasion of his personal space.
I wasn’t suggesting that the reporter thought he was assaulting him, I was assuming he didn’t realise how it would make Will Smith feel.
I’m not sure that was an attempt at a Euro Cheek Kiss. If you look at the video the guy kissed him twice one side of his mouth then a third kiss on the other side before Smith pushed him away. To me it looked like the guy was trying to kiss him on the mouth with the first kiss but missed, attempted to do so again by repositioning with the second but missed again, and from what I can tell it looked like the third kiss ended up on the other side only because Smith moved his head again.
And I also notice that there seemed to be a lot of women in that cheer that happened after the hit. Almost like they were saying, “Thank god he’s not gay.”
I don’t know if one can read that into their responses. Maybe they were Russian women who hate having men come up and grope on them and were like “Hooray! That’s what we would do too!” or maybe it was more like, “What the hell! A a dramatic moment!!!!! Hooray!! We saw a celeb do something dramatic!”
We can’t know, actually.
Reporter was trippin’ if he thought he could touch Smith that way (or any celeb). Smith, lightly rebuked him and moved on and apparently said in a light hearted tone “What a cad.” Celebs deal with boundary violations all the time because people feel entitled to get close to them (which has never made sense to me).
I think any celeb would have been within their rights to push off an aggressive reporter, and any reporter of any gender trying to actually kiss a celeb of any gender is way out of bounds.
I do think that men kissing men is not “repulsive” as a biological thing as per Eric. It’s cultural and the US is more fearful of it than others currently or in the past. There are many cultures where men kiss men. Here is a google link for anyone to research.
HA! JUST When I was starting to get tired of Will Smith.. I think I’m becoming a fan again.
I think his reaction was entirely appropriate. Sexual assault is not excusable and I think it’s morally irresponsible to use “homophobia” in order to excuse it.
I would be just as supportive if it were a female reporter and he slapped her in the same manner. A couple years ago an italian tv personality assaulted David Beckham by grabbing his crotch. You could tell by his expression that he wanted to punch her, but he probably held back because even though he was the victim, Western sexism would have made him more at risk for legal consequences.
+1
If Meryl Streep was kissed by an unwelcomed woman reporter, would SHE be considered “inappropriate” to slap her, or EXPECTED to welcome said kiss because kissing women are always welcome regardless of the receiving gender?
Will Smith was fully justified to slap him.
And seriously, what is with some accusations ? Will Smith, a homophobe for not letting a guy ( a “reporter” famous for kissing celebrities) kiss him ?
What next, you gotta let a gay put his hands in your pants to prove you are progressive enough ?
Wow, talk about making much ado about nothing. A stranger grabbed him and started kissing him. In an obviously startled reaction he gives him a tap with the back of his hand which I doubt would have even reddened the guy’s cheek, and it is reported around the world that Will Smith “slaps a reporter for kissing him.”
And then we all start pontificating on how homophobic our culture is and how if it had been a woman Will would have been sticking his tongue in instead. Sad. How small our lives have become?
I think this is making way too much out of a minor incident, but for what it’s worth:
What if the reporter had been a woman: Cultural relitavism, remember? In the US (and UK) a woman kissing you on the cheek doesn’t have sexual connotations, it’s a pretty personal thing to do to someone you’ve never met but it’s usually understood that it isn’t intended in a sexual manner. The same customs don’t exist for men, it’s a pretty odd thing to do and I don’t think we should be surprised when someone else considers it an invasion of personal space.
But to look at it another way, what if the celebrity had been a woman? I’ve no doubt there’d be a couple of articles about rape culture and how the reporter was disregarding the actor’s autonomy and personal space.
The bottom line is that you shouldn’t touch people without their say so.
“Euro Cheek Kiss”?
What kind of generalising assumptions are you making about a whole continent? While there´s something like that in France between men and women, it´s definitely not normal between two men in anywhere. (I´m German myself and have been to most European countries.)
So does this prove he doesn’t really support gay relationships? Or that perhaps he’s a hypocrite?