A picture showing an astonished look on Hollywood actor Nicole Kidman's face is being shared on social media with captions falsely claiming that the actor was shocked at witnessing Will Smith slap standup comic Chris Rock at the Oscars on March 27.
BOOM found that the claims with the viral picture are unrelated.
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On March 27, 2022, actor Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Oscars stage while he was presenting the 94th Academy Awards ceremony.
Moments before bagging the award for best actor for his role in King Richard, Smith marched on to the stage and slapped Rock after the latter made a joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith being bald.Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia - a hair loss condition. The image has been shared in the backdrop of this episode.
Smith later issued an apology to Rock, to the Academy and to viewers.
The viral image shows Kidman staring at something with amusement. A tweet sharing the picture, reads 'Nicole Kidman should win the Oscar for Best Reaction To Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock #Oscars'.
Click here to view the tweet.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse search and found the same image published on photo wire agency Getty Images on March 27, 2022. The photograph is credited to Los Angeles Times photographer Myung Chun.
A caption with the image reads 'HOLLYWOOD, CA - March 27, 2022. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban during the show at the 94th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 27, 2022. (Myung Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)'.
Entertainment culture news site Vulture reached to the Loss Angeles Times photographer Chun who told Vulture that the picture of Kidman was clicked during the non-televised portion of the award ceremony. "It appeared that she was excited to see Jessica Chastain across the room. Kidman then reached out her arms and waved to her with both hands," Chun told Vulture.
A slightly different angle of Kidman's gesture at the awards ceremony was captured by Reuters's photographer Brian Snyder. The image was captioned 'Nicole Kidman reacts before the start of the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 27, 2022'.
Snyder also confirmed that the image was clicked before the commencement of the awards ceremony. Reuters did a fact check on the photograph.
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BOOM contacted Chun over mail. Replying to BOOM Chun said, "the Nicole Kidman photo was taken during the non-televised portion of the Oscars. The time stamp on the image is 4:19 pm PST."
He also said, "it appeared to me that she was reacting to seeing Jessica Chastain across the room. It had nothing to do with Chris Rock getting slapped."