Oscars P.R. Crisis, Market Meltdowns, & the Buffett Mystery

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to what's new at Puck.

Today, we lead with Baratunde Thurston's searing reflection on the tragedy of Will Smith's Oscars-night meltdown—and what Smith could have done differently to turn a history of violence into an opportunity for transformation.

Plus, below the fold, William D. Cohan looks under the hood of Katie Haun's new $1.5 billion crypto fund and examines Wall Street's evolving risk calculus on Russia. Meanwhile, a bizarre and unexpected proxy statement leaves Wall Street to speculate: Do Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs have beef?

For more post-Oscars analysis, don't miss Matt Belloni's special episode of The Town, live from the red carpet last night. And don't forget to R.S.V.P. for Matt's off-the-record call with Inner Circle members, tomorrow at 4pm ET. To upgrade your membership, email fritz@puck.news.

Will Smith’s Tragic Lesson

During the peak of his powers, Will Smith submitted to the worst possible instincts, allowing what should have been his brightest moment to reveal his own shadow through an act of violence. Smith’s meandering and pained Oscars acceptance speech was couched in the language of abuse.

Chris Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s lack of hair wasn’t a very good joke—dumb, lazy, and given that she has alopecia, cruel. Will Smith’s violent response to that joke—the slap, the “take my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth”—was far worse. And given some key biographical details of Smith’s own early experiences, it’s even more devastating. 

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have been very open about the difficulties and ultimately the openness of their marriage. (Who knows what really goes on in their marriage, by the way—all marriages have their own unique codes, after all.) What surprised me most, though, is that harrowing physical violence loomed large in Smith’s childhood, and has self-admittedly lingered over his psyche. 

In particular, he was tormented by the memories of his father beating his mother when he was a young child, and remains remorseful about his inability to protect her. “Within everything that I have done since then—the awards and accolades, the spotlights and attention, the characters and the laughs—there has been a subtle string of apologies to my mother for my inaction that day,” he wrote in his 2021 autobiography, Will. “For failing her in the moment. For failing to stand up to my father. For being a coward. What you have come to understand as ‘Will Smith’, the alien-annihilating MC, the bigger-than-life movie star, is largely a construction—a carefully crafted and honed character designed to protect myself. To hide myself from the world...

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