2022: The year of the slap
Smith hitting Rock at Oscars permeated pop culture along with retirements, comebacks and records
Taylor Swift was up.
Elon Musk was in, out and in. Tom Cruise was back. BTS stepped aside, and so did Serena Williams, and Tom Brady too — oops, scratch that.
But the slap? The slap was everywhere.
OK, so maybe it wasn’t on the level of a moon landing or selection of a pope. But henceforth all you need say is “the slap” and people will know what you mean — that moment Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars and a global audience said, “Wait, did that happen?”
The pandemic was over in 2022, phew! Well, of course it wasn’t. But live entertainment pushed forward, with mask mandates dropping and people rushing to buy things like Taylor Swift tickets!
We’ll take any segue to mention Swift, who already had a big year in 2021, but just got bigger in 2022 — she broke Billboard records and then she broke Ticketmaster.
It was a year of celebrity #MeToo cases like Harvey Weinstein (again), R. Kelly (again), Kevin Spacey, Paul Haggis, Danny Masterson. And the Johnny DeppAmber Heard defamation trial, its every excruciating turn captured on TV.
On the big screen, there were big comebacks. Mourning its dearly missed star, Chadwick Boseman, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was a box-office triumph. James Cameron’s “Avatar” charted a December return.
Then there was Tom Cruise, turning 60 in ’22, swooping into Cannes with his most successful movie, and showing that when they tell you “the end is inevitable,” as they do in “Top Gun: Maverick,” you can always reply, “Maybe so, sir, but not today.”
Our annual, totally selective journey through a year in pop culture follows.
January: It’s Golden Globes time. But is a Globes with no telecast, boozy celebs or red carpet a Globes at all? The embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association, reeling from stunning failures over diversity, holds a private event. The New York Times buys Wordle, and we’re all thinking in five-letter words. Meanwhile, it’s a month of loss, heading off a year of loss: pioneering Black actor, director and activist Sidney Poitier dies at 94.
What would a year in pop culture be without Britney? Just months after her liberation from her restrictive conservatorship, Spears is reported to have signed a mammoth book deal, but at year’s end
February:
we’re still waiting for news. Rihanna is pregnant! Tom Brady retires! (Stay tuned, on that one.)
March: Quick, who wins Oscars? Well, “CODA” does, a feel-good drama with a largely deaf cast, and Troy Kotsur becomes the first deaf actor to win an acting Oscar. Alas, all anyone can talk about is — you know. Smith, who wins the best actor award not long after slapping Rock over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, won’t truly address the issue until the end of the year. Kardashian watch: Kim K is declared legally single again in her ongoing divorce with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Brady, retired for 40 days, says, “Never mind!”
April: It’s Grammy time, and Jon Batiste wins big, taking five statuettes. Musk begins his acquisition of Twitter this month, leading to untold — and still unfolding — changes at the social media giant.
May: At the Met Gala, a musician comes sauntering through, playing the melodica — of course it’s Batiste. The biggest splash of the night, though, is Kardashian, on the arm of
boyfriend Pete Davidson, wearing the same sequined, skin tight gown Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to JFK in 1962. In movies, “Top Gun: Maverick” opens, the highest grossing domestic debut in Cruise’s career, and his first to surpass
$100 million on opening weekend. Harry Styles fans rejoice! His album, “Harry’s House,” is here.
June: Stunning news for the global fanbase of BTS as the K-pop supergroup announces it’s taking a break to focus on members’ solo projects. On the legal front, a Virginia jury hands Depp a victory in his very messy libel case over allegations of domestic abuse, finding that former wife Heard defamed him in a 2018 op-ed. On a happier note, Britney gets married.
July: Only one wedding, Britney? Bennifer has two! Jennifer Lopez directs fans to her newsletter where she shares pics of her quickie wedding in Vegas to Ben Affleck. “Love is beautiful,” she writes. “And it turns out love is patient.” Speaking of patience, fans of Beyonce are rewarded for theirs, with the release of her seventh studio album, “Renaissance,” her
first solo album in six years.
August: Bennifer’s second wedding, on Affleck’s compound in Georgia, is bigger and fancier.
One wedding, one split: Kardashian and Davidson are no longer. The world remembers Princess Diana, whose shocking death in a car crash happened 25 years ago, and whose life is being rehashed for a new generation in “The Crown.” That Netflix series pauses production briefly as a mark of respect for Queen Elizabeth II as Britain — and the world — mourns the monarch, who dies at age 96 after more than 70 years on the throne.
September: Did spit fly at the Venice premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling”? Either way the movie, directed by Olivia Wilde and starring her boyfriend (alleged spitter Styles), is saddled — or blessed? — with more than its share of extracurricular drama. At the Emmys, behold Sheryl Lee Ralph, who wins for “Abbott Elementary” and schools the crowd on the power of dreams and self-belief. Rachel Berry from “Glee” — aka Lea Michele — gets to play Fanny Brice in “Funny
Girl” on Broadway. In sports, with four words that resonate with working moms everywhere, Serena Williams says she’s stepping aside from tennis, because, “something’s got to give.”
Adidas drops
Ye, part of a cascade of companies that will sever ties with the rapper over his antisemitic and other troubling comments.
The Musk era begins at Twitter. Swift drops her new album, “Midnights” (Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day), then adds seven bonus tracks, and then becomes the first artist to occupy all top 10 slots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Celebrity divorce watch: Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen split.
October:
November: Millions of eager fans crowd a presale for Swift’s Eras Tour, resulting in crashes and endless waits. Ticketmaster cancels the general sale, citing insufficient stock. Multiple state attorneys general announce investigations. At the multiplex, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” meets the double challenge of following up one of the biggest blockbusters in history and losing its biggest star.
December: Love ’em or hate ’em, here come Harry and Meghan again with a Netflix “documentary.” Cameron’s “Avatar” sequel finally appears, 13 years after the original broke records. And bringing the year full circle, Smith emerges to promote his new film, “Emancipation,” and hoping people will forget about … what was it? … at least enough to check out the movie.
In this year of comebacks, will Smith’s be the biggest?
Check back with us at the end of 2023.