Do you remember when Willow and Jaden Smith gave that bizarre interview to The NY Times last fall? Willow said that time didn’t exist, Jaden said that he could control time, and he also claimed that school was useless. He said he only went to school for a year because “you never learn anything in school,” particularly driver’s ed, “because if everybody I know has been in an accident, I can’t see how driver’s ed is really helping them out.” It was bizarre, specious reasoning, but that pretty much characterizes the Smith kids, who were raised with Scientology teaching methods. (Although I doubt that they’re even being taught anything at this point, given that Will and Jada a href=”http://www.celebitchy.com/294464/will_smith_on_not_disciplining_his_kids_as_young_as_possible_give_them_as_much_control_as_possible/”>believe in letting them do whatever they want.)

During the Sony hack, we saw an email that executive Tom Rothman (head of TriStar) sent to Amy Pascal in which he pointed to the interview and mentioned that the kids were home schooled. He wrote “1. Read this 2. they r home schooled: don’t let this family date your movies!!!“” It was probably a quick message written on a phone and it was true, the Smith kids are home schooled, if they even are schooled at this point. Plus that was well after Will and Jaden’s horrible bomb of a Scientology propaganda film, After Earth, had come out in early 2013. That was an expensive mistake for Sony. (After Earth was distributed by Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony.)

On the red carpet for his new heist film, Focus, Will laughed off a mention of that email and said it was meant to be private anyway. Plus he said he has worked with Rothman in the past and implied that that’s not going to change.

“Everybody disses my kids,” Smith said Tuesday with an outsized chuckle. “To me, that’s just part of the business. And somebody’s email is private, you know? So I would never hold anybody responsible for something they said in a private email. I shouldn’t even know about it…”

“I worked with Tom [when he was head of Fox Filmed Entertainment.] ,” the star said outside Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre. “We did ‘Independence Day’ together. We did ‘I, Robot.’ I’ve worked with Tom a lot.”

[From Variety]

Say what you will about Will Smith, he’s a professional and he knows how to handle his business. Maybe he should question why everyone is “dissing” his kids, though. It’s not just because they’re in the business, it’s because they say ridiculous things that make no sense.

Also while on the red carpet, Will said that he has problems balancing work and down time with Jada. US Magazine frames this like Will said this was the cause of all his issues with Jada. (Remember late 2011 and early 2012 when there were so many split rumors? Jada may have said that they have an open marriage, but she tried to clarify that later.) The fact is that Will was asked how he balances work and personal time and he said it was a struggle, he didn’t call it the cause of all his relationship issues at all. Here’s a segment of US’s article on that:

The actor, 46, was asked how he divvies up his time between work and his own personal life. “Now that’s really interesting. Jada and I have struggled with that a little bit.. The problem is one person is in work mode while the other person is in chill mode. Then it’s like you’re both trying to come up.”

“It is really something that will happen in time. And you’ll realize that you’re either really committed to having a relationship, or you’re really committed to coming up. At some point one or the other is going to have to suffer.”

[From US Magazine]

Whatever is going on with Will and Jada, they seem to be doing better now, at least that’s what all the PDA at the premiere would suggest. Oh and it’s strange that Will didn’t mention his kids when he was asked about his personal life. Maybe the question was framed as just about his relationship, though. Plus it’s a throwaway question on a red carpet, I shouldn’t read too much into it.

photo credit: WENN.com