One of Hip Hop’s resident nice guys, Will Smith showed the world he is not one to be walked on, after slamming several celebrity gossip websites that claimed Smith offered praise to Adolf Hitler.
In an interview with Scottish paper, The Daily Record, Smith said, “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’ I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good.”
The writer of the article interpreted that Smith “believes everyone is basically good.“
That portion of the article was picked up by numerous celebrity gossip sites, which in turn ran with the story over the weekend (the interview with The Daily Record was published Saturday).
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While many celebrities shy away from addressing their detractors, Smith wasted no time clarifying his marks, blasting those who took the statement out of context.
“It is an awful and disgusting lie,” Smith said in a statement released Monday. “It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous
misinterpretation. Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.“
It seemed that, initially the damage was done before Smith could issue his rebuttal. The Jewish Defense League quickly issued a statement saying Smith “spit on the memory of every person murdered by the Nazis.“
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In addition, the group also called on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to denounce Smith‘s statements and wanted I Am Legend, Smith‘s latest movie, pulled from theaters.
After hearing Smith‘s clarification, the Anti Defamation League issued a statement in support of Smith, however, according to an EUR Web report, the JDL has not retracted their original statement.
