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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It’s a start.
Will they have the character die of AIDS?
*snert*
Deserves to be cleaning windshields at intersections in New York City.
So Jussie went from $100K/episode to $0/episode.
Prime example of “unstable genius.”
The guy will off himself soon.
#SooSad
And his career will only GO UP from here.
Who thinks HOLLYWOOD is genuinely disappointed with him..?
For crying out loud he has become a HERO among the left.
I think if he had stopped lying, he might have had a chance.
He paid two guys $3500 to beat him up.
I bet there are some Freepers that would have done it for a lot less.
Really> Where?
“Jussie Smollett continues to be a consummate professional on set and as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show,” 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Entertainment said.—Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Call Christopher Plummer.
He paid them with a check!......................
Wha-whaaa!
And a Tanning bed rental.....................
I'll bet.
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