"Hi, I'm Jussie, may I take your order?"
Posted on 02/22/2019 7:59:18 AM PST by Red Badger
One day after Jussie Smollett was arrested on multiple felony charges for the alleged racist and homophobic attack of last month, the producers of Empire have cut the actor from the rest of the show’s fifth season
“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us,” said EPs Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer this morning.
“Jussie has been an important member of our Empire family for the past five years and we care about him deeply,” the producers added. “While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out. We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”
With just a couple of episodes left to be completed in the current season of Empire, producer and writers on the Mahoney showrun series had already cut or trimmed a number of Smollett’s remaining scenes so today’s move isn’t a seismic shift in that sense. However, when you consider that
Facing a barrage of criticism from openly “pissed” off law enforcement officials, prosecutors and TV talking heads, Smollett was released on $100,000 bail and had his passport revoked during the downtown Chicago court appearance Thursday.
At that pretty conclusive and damning hearing on claims that Smollett’s pre-planned the January 29 attack that attracted so much outrage from the likes of Empire co-creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, the actor’s defense lawyers oddly insisted that Smollett needed to get back to work on Empire, which was continuing production.
In fact, after a couple of hours in the Cook County detention center Smollett went straight to the nearby set of the series. That reunion of sorts was tense and “very stressful for everyone,” a well placed source tells me as the actor met with various creatives and cast members of the Taraji P Henson and Terrence Howard led Empire.
Similar to a statement that was released by his legal team on Thursday evening, Smollett proclaimed his “innocence” to the Empire team, but the powers-that-be already felt the situation was untenable.
Beyond the court case that could in theory see Smollett in jail for three years under the disorderly conduct and filing a false police report charges, the larger decision to come for Empire and Fox is if Smollett be a part of upcoming seasons guilty or acquitted. Like all original cast members, Smollett signed on for seven seasons of the show when Empire was being put together in 2014. Also like all cast members, the now $100,000 an episode actor received a significant pay raise after the blockbuster launch of Season 1.
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"Hi, I'm Jussie, may I take your order?"
Coincidence? Nope. Look for more foolish insanity until she steps up to the plate early next year.
I think we have a new job for him. Jerry Springer wrote a check to some hooker when he was on the Cincinnati City Council.
Juss sayin'...!
But Springer wasn’t trying to get a a raise.
He already had one..................
Furiously
I bet he could actually get a shrink to claim he has Trump Derangement syndrome (TDS) and get off.
Successful blacks have a way of screwing up. Think O.J., Caruthers, Tiger. Murder and screwing around are 2 different things but the problem is the black community. They’d rather hear about their failures rather than success stories. More drama.
Is “unstable genius” the new term for ‘criminal sociopath’?
With a a back-hoe..................
I’m sure they’re proud of Smallette but cutting him out is CYA. Might even get ore people to watch. No one does it now.
The issue might be what his contract says.
They might have to pay him, even if he isn’t there
Yeah, I’m thinking he could probably use the money.
How do you even say that? I need one of those little dictionary icons that reads..."Hear the word."
LOL!
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheOtherDarrin
Unfortunately Dick Sargent is not available for the role of Jamal...
Maybe Ed Buck, the white RAT, gay donor who had 2 black men
die in his house will “help him out”.
In this case, yes!
Both vowels are short.
We’ll that took long enough!
A conservative woulda been canned post haste!
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