Jim Carrey says if it were him he’d — ahem — slap Will Smith back with a $200 million lawsuit, but friends of Chris Rock say “he isn’t even thinking of suing, he’s focusing on his tour.”
Carrey, who said he was sickened by the standing ovation Will Smith got after slapping Rock at Sunday night’s Academy Awards, added Smith should have been arrested and sued over the act.
“I’d have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200 million because that video is going to be there forever, it’s going to be ubiquitous,” Carrey told “CBS Mornings.”
“That insult is gonna last a very long time,” he continued, even though Smith has since issued a formal apology
But a friend of Rock, 57, told Page Six, “He isn’t even thinking of suing, he’s focused on his tour,” which starts tonight in Boston.
The tour is completely sold out – and we await to see if the slap heard around the world will make it into his set.
Meanwhile, Rock clearly isn’t a fan of legal proceedings, in a previous Netflix comedy special he talked about the torture of his divorce.
Rock and wife Malaak Compton announced they were separating in 2014. The divorce was finalized in 2016.
In his 2019 comedy special “Tamborine,” Rock told the audience, “You don’t want to get divorced, I tell you right now.”
He said everyone was there to take his money away, “I had to pay for a lawyer to divorce me. That’s like hiring a hitman to kill you.”
“I had to go through a custody fight for my kids,” Rock continues in the special. “Just to see my kids, man.”
He calls the process “humiliating” and added, “You don’t want to be a man in family court. You don’t want to be a black man in any court.” A rep for Rock didn’t comment.
Meanwhile Rock was said to be in a “great mood” before his first stand-up show at The Wilbur in Boston after the Oscars fracas – and the first date of a big tour of over 100 shows.
The venue’s owner Bill Blumenreich told People, Rock has been “all business” since arriving in Boston: “It’s a big, big tour, over 100 shows, and he’s taking it very seriously. He’s probably the funniest guy I’ve ever met. We were talking last night, he was saying, ‘How long have I known you?’ Since he started on SNL! I’ve been working with him since 1991.”
“He’s one of the nicest, funniest people you could ever meet in your life,” he added.
Rock has two shows scheduled Wednesday, two on Thursday and one on Friday.
The “Saturday Night Live” alum is then reportedly scheduled to make appearances in Atlantic City and California.