Los Angeles Times

A pre-slap premonition. Life-saving ayahuasca. Jada Pinkett Smith unveils ‘surreal’ secrets

From left, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland on Sunday, March 27, 2022, in Hollywood, California. ( Jay L. Clendenin/ Los Angeles Times/ TNS.

The Oscar slap was one of the most “surreal” events of Jada Pinkett Smith’s life. But she can’t say she didn’t see it coming.

In her upcoming memoir, “Worthy,” the actress, “Red Table Talk” creator and gossip-generating wife of Will Smith says she had a “premonition” just before her husband smacked Chris Rock onstage during the 94th Academy Awards.

“It flashed through my mind as Chris Rock’s face came across the screen. ... In fact, my stomach clenched,” she recalls. “He had been known to take swipes at me — and from the Oscar stage no less.”

One such swipe was in 2016, amid the#OscarsSoWhite controversy. Pinkett Smith had shared online her “ disappointment” with the lack of diversity among acting nominees and questioned whether people of color should attend. During Rock’s opening monologue as host, he joked, “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”

So when she made the seen ’round the world at the 2022 Oscars after Rock poked fun at her baldness, a symptom of alopecia, by comparing her to movie character G.I. Jane, it wasn’t just

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