Police visit Will Smith’s Calabasas mansion after Oscars slapgate, officer reveals the reason

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s officers were spotted at actor Will Smith’s home on Tuesday afternoon. This comes a day after Will raked up a huge controversy by slapping comedian-actor Chris Rock on stage at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony. However, the police were there on an unrelated matter. (Also read: Jim Carrey questions Will Smith getting a standing ovation at Oscars: ‘I was sickened, would have sued him for $200 mn’)

As per Page Six, the sheriffs drove up to the gates of Will and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s Calabasas mansion. Pictures of the police vehicle were clicked by paparazzi stationed outside the house. The police were there to investigate reports of an unidentified drone flying over the neighbourhood.

Deputy Lizette Salcon, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department talked about the drone, but did not confirm if the actor and his family had called in the complaint, or another person from the neighbourhood. “We just sent that unit over there to try to locate the drone and see if there was a paparazzi or what was going on,” the deputy said, “but when the deputies got there, they weren’t able to locate the drone. It had already left the area. ”

The live telecast of the Oscars on Sunday was marred by the incident in which Chris Rock cracked a joke at actor Jada Pinkett Smith’s expense and Will Smith responded by slapping Chris on stage. The incident started when Chris came on stage to announce the winners for Best Documentary Feature award and made a tasteless joke about Jada, saying she could star in the sequel to G.I. Jane, in an apparent reference to her shaved head because of the autoimmune disorder alopecia.

An enraged Smith went up and hit Chris on the face, leaving the audience members as well as millions of viewers of the ceremony shocked. Will later won the Best Actor trophy for his performance in the movie King Richard. He apologised to the Oscars organisers in his acceptance speech but not to Chris, who declined to press charges against Will.

Will publicly apologised to Chris with a Instagram post a day later. The Academy has now launched a formal investigation in the matter.