Actor Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith arrive on the red carpet at the 86th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Calif., on March 2.MIKE BLAKE/Reuters
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith: The world's chillest parents?
As first reported on TMZ, the celebrity parents are totally copasetic with a controversial photo that surfaced online of their 13-year-old daughter, Willow, in bed with an older actor.
A source close to the Smith clan says both Will and Jada believe Willow "is old enough to make decisions on who she hangs with, even innocently in bed."
The same unnamed source also said that the celebrity parents believe Willow is "very mature" and described the black-and-white photo of 13-year-old Willow in bed with 20-year-old actor Moises Arias are "an expression of art."
Arias has been friends with Will and Jada's 15-year-old son Jaden for the past several years. Arias is best known for playing the support role of Rico on the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana.
In the photo, Arias is shown shirtless in bed with Willow lying on her side beside him, resting her head on his arm.
On Tuesday, Arias posted the photo to his Instagram page, which immediately sparked a firestorm of negative reaction on social media, including Twitter user LuAnne Sorrell's comment: "As a parent, I don't think I'm ok with this."
Arias deleted the photo from his Instagram account the same day, but not before thousands of fans captured the photo and reposted it.
In recent years, Willow has been criticized for dressing older than her years and for producing music. It was just last July that Willow – and her famous parents – were roundly criticized over the music video for the song Summer Fling, in which she was shown cavorting with an older male and performing lyrics some said were of an adult nature. ("Good night kisses if the mood is right/Laying by the beach with you wishing this will never end." The music video ends with Willow delivering the line, "Thanks for the summer fling. It was nice.")
Willow was 12 years old at the time. Now she's 13, and being raised in an "alternative fashion" by her parents.
In a recent magazine interview, Willow said, "I never really get to school because I am always on tour or with my father. There is a tutor most of the time, but usually I am working so I never get to do the lessons."
The scholastic downside: "The worst thing about math is all the kids are ahead of me because they go to school."