First, a disclaimer: If you’re so sick of it you’re pretty sure if you see one more article about it, you’re going to… ? I’m there. Bigly. That said, this piece is not about it but rather the blistering beatdown of one of Hollywood’s charmed couples because of it — by one of the few entertainers who can get away with it.

HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher on Friday’s show tore into the “slap heard round the world,” Tinseltown story of the century that has been written about and talked about, over and over and over, beyond the point of ad nauseam — with a “slightly” different twist than most.

As reported by the New York Post, Maher mostly tore into the “victim” </sarcasm>, the ever-self-indulgent Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of the (formerly?) beloved Hollywood A-lister who threw away 30 years of admiration and goodwill in 30 seconds of one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen — and I’ve seen some stupid crap.

Maher being Maher — I say that this time with the utmost respect (based on what’s about to come) — he first went after Pinkett Smith and the issue of her alopecia, a common autoimmune disorder that often results in unpredictable hair loss. As transcribed by the Post:

If you are so lucky in life as to have that be your medical problem, just say ‘Thank God.’ It’s not life-threatening. It’s part of — for most people, 80 percent of men, 50 percent of women — it’s part of aging.

“Aging is, trust me I know, it’s the degradation of the flesh. It happens to all of us,” said the 66-year-old Maher. He was partially right: the condition can affect anyone regardless of age and gender, though, in most cases, it occurs before the age of 30.

And then the blast:

And you know, just put on a f**king wig like everybody else at the Oscars if it bothers you so much.

Boom. BOOM.

Thing is, if Pinkett Smith is so bothered or traumatized by her alopecia condition, one wonders why she all but bragged about her “bald” head just days before the Academy Awards, insisting she doesn’t “give two craps what people think of this bald head of mine.” As transcribed by CNN:

Being a Black woman and dealing with hair in Hollywood, in the era I came up in, having your hair look as European as possible was always the thing. And that was really challenging, you know, because I liked my hair out wild and curly, but nobody wanted that.

So I had to learn to get the courage to go, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that. Which is why I feel the freedom today — I don’t give two craps what people think of this bald head of mine. Because guess what? I love it.

Hmm. Which is it? (I don’t give a damn; I’m merely highlighting her hypocrisy [lying, one way or the other].)

Less than one week before the Oscars, Jada Pinkett Smith discusses her hair. She says, “I don’t give two craps what people think of this bald head of mine, because guess what? I love it”. pic.twitter.com/3Yo7BHcIng

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) March 29, 2022

Maher also tore into — and had some advice for — Will Smith, saying the “smackdown” of Chris Rock over a joke about Pinkett Smith’s bald head exposed ugly “aspects of society,” like “toxic masculinity, victim culture, and liberal hypocrisy,” correctly noting that most Americans associate the Academy Awards with the Democratic party and coastal elites — and all it suggests.

The bottom line:

For the love of God, can we finally stop the obsession?

Except for blistering beatdowns like Bill Maher’s, of course.