The fate of whether Will Smith will get to keep his award for Best Actor will be revealed on Friday — well, once the Academy makes up its mind!

By now, you know that the 53-year-old Independence Day actor smacked Chris Rock across the face on the Oscars stage after a tasteless joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head (something she’s very sensitive about as she’s been open about her struggle with alopecia). Moments after the shocking incident, he took the stage to accept the Best Actor prize for his role in King Richard.

Since then, the fallout from the slap has been pretty bad for Will, as he has seen his upcoming projects placed on the back burner. However, it could get messier for the rapper depending on how the Academy rules during their hearing on the assault.

Related: Will Smith’s ‘Biggest Fear’ Amid Oscars Slap Fallout Revealed…

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum has already resigned from the organization, meaning suspension and expulsion are out of the question at this time. But if that was a move to get out ahead of the punishment, he may have made things worse. Obviously the Academy has been trying to save face in the wake of the incident, to the point of making the questionable claim that they tried to remove him from the ceremony — something that seems clearly untrue.

So now they seem to have moved on to deciding whether to take the shocking and unprecedented move of TAKING BACK his award! And it sounds like they are having some trouble coming to an agreement…

While the Academy was supposed to meet on April 18, that meeting ended up being fast-tracked to Friday to determine further disciplinary actions to take against Will. Following a couple of calls with “various members, and specific governors over the past ten days” before Friday’s meeting, a source told The Sun that the 54 board members are “completely split” 50-50 over what to do. They said:

“The members – of which there are over 9,000, with hundreds of WhatsApp groups flying about – are completely split.”

In fact, the governors “are also said to be in disagreement” about the matter, noting that the board believes it would be hypocritical to confiscate Will’s award since “convicted sexual predator Harvey Weinstein and fugitive child rapist Roman Polanski” have not had their Oscars taken away. We mean… YEAH! As the source lamented:

“But, as we all know, Hollywood is a law unto itself, frankly.”

So what does this mean? Well, the insider explained that the decision will now most likely come at the last second:

“The decision was made earlier this week to expedite the hearing in the wake of Will’s resignation, and during that call it was clear that the decision would go to the wire.”

Talk about leaving all of us on the edge of our seats.

Related: Chris Rock’s Brother Says Slap Still ‘Eats At’ Him & Insists Actor Didn’t Know About Jada’s Alopecia

The only Oscar award the organization has revoked in its history is when Young Americans won for Best Documentary in 1969 after the board found out that the film had actually been released in 1967 — notably a technical, eligibility decision, not a punitive one. This would be the first time the Academy ever took back an Oscar as punishment for an action that had nothing to do with the film.

Will The Pursuit of Happiness star become the second person ever to have his Oscars to be rescinded? We’ll have to wait and see what the Academy determines.

What do YOU think will happen, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments!

[Image via ABC/YouTube]