Entertainment
Carrie Ann Inaba reportedly went to HR over Val Chmerkovskiy's Will Smith joke before his DWTS suspension
Sources say Carrie Ann Inaba felt threatened by Val Chmerkovskiy's Will Smith joke and took it to HR. He was suspended for one Dancing with the Stars episode.
Val Chmerkovskiy's one-week benching from "Dancing with the Stars" reportedly traces back to judge Carrie Ann Inaba herself.
A complaint to HR
People familiar with the situation say Inaba did not take Chmerkovskiy's Will Smith crack as a harmless joke. According to insiders she told producers the longtime pro made her feel unsafe.
According to those sources she was angry enough to take it to the human resources team at BBC Productions and push for action. That company produces the show.
A separate source tells a different version. That person says BBC opened its own review after seeing the joke but would not say whether Inaba ever filed a complaint.
Either way Chmerkovskiy was reportedly informed that the producers were bound by their own policies. He was then sidelined for one episode.
Where the joke came from
The feud started when Inaba knocked Chmerkovskiy's wife, Jenna Johnson, for putting a lift into her routine with Harry Shum Jr.
Chmerkovskiy answered online by joking that viewers nearly saw the "Fresh Prince" walk into the ballroom. It was a wink at the night Smith smacked Chris Rock onstage at the Academy Awards.
He later apologized to Inaba. The show benched him anyway. Alan Bersten filled in as the dance partner of Chmerkovskiy's celebrity partner, Jenna Dewan.
Support behind the scenes
Chmerkovskiy has reportedly heard from plenty of colleagues who are backing him.
Talk that he unfollowed Inaba, Bersten or Emma Slater online is false, sources say. He never followed any of them to begin with.
Whether he will still be paid for the episode he is missing has not been settled.
