watch those RAT bastards write him outta the show killed in a HATE CRIME!
Posted on 02/21/2019 12:48:02 PM PST by Red Badger
Just a couple of hours before Jussie Smollett faces a Chicago judge on the criminal charges he was indicted for Wednesday related to the alleged racist and homophobic attack of late last month, Fox has started walking back its once-firm support of the actor.
“We understand the seriousness of this matter and we respect the legal process,” 20th Century Fox TV and Fox Entertainment said of the Empire star this morning. “We are evaluating the situation and we are considering our options.”
With those potentially ominous last three words, production on the final episodes of the current season of Empire continues Thursday in the Windy City wihtout the actor who plays the openly gay Jamal Lyon on the Fox show.
Although Fox and Smollett’s agency UTA are sticking by the actor for now, there has been talk, as Deadline reported on February 20, of suspending him from Empire as the felony case goes to the courts. That talk could be turning to a more permanent conclusion as the broadcaster evaluates the fallout from what is a PR disaster, to put it mildly.
Fox’s tempered statement comes after the actor surrendered to authorities in the pre-dawn hours. The remarks from Fox TV and Fox Entertainment also follow a scathing press conference by CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson that accused Smollett of staging the January 29 attack with brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo to take “advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.”
Openly “pissed off” police also believe that Smollett falsified the police report to get an increase in his salary on Empire.
Smollett makes more than $100,000 an episode for Empire after a big boost following the blockbuster first cycle of the series. Like Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard and the other leads on the show, Smollett inked a seven-season deal for Empire back in 2014.
On Wednesday, following Smollett’s remaining scenes in the last couple of episodes of Empire’s fifth season being cut or significantly trimmed back, Fox said that the performer “continues to be a consummate professional on set and as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show.”
That was a step back from the strong words of being “deeply saddened and outraged” when the supposed assault occurred in the early morning of January 29 on the street near Smollett’s Chicago apartment.
The incident was originally described as an “potential hate crime” that left the openly gay Smollett beaten, drenched in bleach and with a rope slung around his neck.
Speaking on Good Morning America on February 14 in his first interview since the incident at the end of last month, Smollett said he thought the attack occurred because of his high profile criticism of Donald Trump. “I come really, really hard against 45,” the actor told GMA co-host Robin Roberts at the time. “I come really, really hard against his administration, and I don’t hold my tongue,” Smollett added of the President who called the attack on him “horrible” a couple of days after it occurred.
Previously identified as “persons of interest” in the case, the Osundairo siblings are now said to be “fully” cooperating with authorities. The duo testified for over two hours yesterday before a recently convened Grand Jury in downtown Chicago.
After Smollett was charged last night, his lawyers vowed to “conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense,” as lawyers do in these situations.
Fox entertainment network and ‘Empire’ producers are parsing their words but at this point, I can’t see them keeping him on the show when even many blacks have distanced themselves from him, making Smollett toxic and likely unemployable,even in leftist Hollywood.
Many blacks value their victim status and this clown abused that by clumsily faking a physical assault and attributing it to his “strong opposition to 45” (President Trump). For a black man, you know you’re in trouble when Al Sharpton turns on you.
The attempt to smear Trump with a concocted race-based assault story was stupid and deserves to land Smollett in prison, which is a remote possibility but still possible.
Even if he walks free, his reputation is badly damaged and his career is likely ruined. He’ll get little sympathy here or anywhere else.
They don’t want to be called racists.................
“Empire strikes back?” — Jess Kitting
There should be a prize for the best pun of the thread!
— Juss Quitting
Never underestimate the Left’s propensity to forgive even the most disgusting of crimes if done in the service of the ideology..................
We had 8 years of Obozo’s racist administration in the interim...........they were taught well................
Ashamed of having been found out that he plagiarized a song, his character commits suicide by jumping off the balcony of his apartment building. (I assume his character lives in an apartment, never having bothered to watch this show.
Pair him up with Shep Smith.
Wasn’t that the case with the “first openly gay NBA player?” Had a string of girlfriends in his past and no evidence of being gay at all? I think he pulled that because he was in danger of being cut. Funny enough, that was an early reason given for Smollet’s hoax—that he was about to be cut from Empire.
They will opt to do an Empire Episode advertised as “ripped from the Headlines” where a poor Rap Star is attacked by two Nigerian White Supremacists who are in to Classic Rock.
If he was white, he would have been fired by now. Plus, there would be endless numbers of editorials lecturing everyone on the evil of white racism.
How long did it take fire Rosanne and all she did was tell an off-color joke in a PC infested country?
If it was apples to apples; the 'Empire' series would have been cancelled by now and a spin off with another name would have been started within a couple of months.
So that guy makes $100,000 and episode and that wasn’t enough. Well he can say goodbye to that money and say hello to bankruptcy when he has to pay all the legal fees and such.
Greed, Greed, and More Greed, it will do you in everytime.
Good point, where is his boy friend. Does he even have one, has anyone come out and claimed him as their lover????????
watch those RAT bastards write him outta the show killed in a HATE CRIME!
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