By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Jada Pinkett Smith turned her husband's Oscar-night blowup into a teachable moment about alopecia areata, the hair-loss disorder affecting her and millions of others that, in some cases, can impact a person's sense of identity.
"Considering what I've been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories," Pinkett Smith said on Wednesday's episode of "Red Table Talk."
The actor said she chose to use "this moment to give our alopecia family an opportunity to talk about what it's like to have this condition" and what it is. Her guests included the mother of a 12-year-old girl, Rio Allred, who was bullied over her hair loss and died by suicide, and a physician who explained the different types of the disorder.
Before tackling the subject, Pinkett Smith addressed events at the March 27 Academy Awards. She and husband Will Smith, a best-actor nominee, were in the audience as presenter Chris Rock cracked a joke at Pinkett Smith's expense.
"Jada, I love you. 'G.I. Jane 2,' can't wait to see it," Rock said. Pinkett Smith, who has spoken publicly about her alopecia, had a closely shaved head similar to that of Demi Moore in the 1997 movie.
Smith strode from his front-row seat to the stage and slapped Rock, shocking the comedian and the audience. Smith, who returned to his seat and later accepted the Oscar for "King Richard," subsequently apologized to Rock but was banned from the ceremony for 10 years by the film academy.
"Now, about Oscar night, my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile," Pinkett Smith said on "Red Table Talk" in an indirect reference to Smith and Rock. "The state of the world today, we need them both, and we all actually need one another more than ever.
"Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that's keep figuring out this thing called life together," said Pinkett Smith, who previously had addressed the incident in a brief Instagram post that read ""This is a season for healing and I'm here for it."
The actor ("Girls Trip," "Matrix" films), who hosts the Facebook Watch talk show with her daughter, Willow, and Adrienne Banfield Norris, her mother, said that millions of people are living with alopecia and what she called the "shame" that surrounds it. The condition, particularly for Black women, can affect a person's perception of themselves and force them to frequently confront others' perceptions about beauty, hair and race and culture.
Rio's mother, Nicole Ball, recounted the impact of the Oscar incident, which took place less than two weeks after her daughter's death.
"What is the universe doing right now? This is crazy,'" Ball recalled thinking. "People are going to be Googling, 'What is alopecia….What is this that we've never heard of?' It's not a joke."
According to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, the disorder affects as many as 6.8 million people in the United States of any age, sex and ethnic group, and the symptoms can vary.
"I think the part that makes it most difficult for me is that it comes and goes. You're going through a spell of something, and you got to shave your head," Pinkett Smith said.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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