Will Smith is on ‘probation’ with Black Hollywood. But it may not last much longer.
It seems almost every week now that one of Hollywood’s hottest young stars, actors who are now in their early 20s, are arrested for possession of marijuana or cocaine. This week, actor Will Smith was arrested in a California airport for what police say was a bag with five grams of cocaine in it that he claimed his “ex-girlfriend” had bought for him. “She’s probably lying,” Smith said in a press conference this week. “She’s probably not in the country right now.” (She “certainly is not,” an unidentified friend of Jones was quoted as saying.)
Smith was charged with possession of cocaine, but not with trafficking, a term that is usually applied when you’re trying to get into the narcotics trade. He is being held on $25,000 bail and his next court date is March 22.
“I have to assume that this will probably be my last run-in with the law,” he told the Associated Press. “I have been doing this now for a little over a year now. I got to do my time.” Smith’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The “Lois & Clark” actor has been arrested six times in the past three months for drug possession, although only once in Los Angeles, and a case in Arizona was dismissed. But he’s had more run-ins with law enforcement than that, including the arrests last spring of two other aspiring actors when they tried to film an episode of “Charmed” in San Diego. The reality is that the drug arrests have become emblematic of the times.
In 2002, Will Smith’s character, an aspiring musician, was arrested for possession of marijuana and possession of an iPod loaded with photos of children who were under 18. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and was given five years probation. He also was ordered to surrender his vehicle, which he had purchased after the incident and was also held in lieu of two years’ probation for his 2008 arrest for cocaine possession. He was released on October 17, three days after the “Lois & Clark” premiere.
And then there is the issue of racial profiling. “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Oldsmob,” an upcoming reality series on the CW network, was cancelled yesterday after the network