Lee Daniels BLAMES Mo’Nique For Blacklisting?!?
“Empire” creator Lee Daniels BLAMES Mo’Nique For Blacklisting, but she won an Oscar for his movie Precious that put him on the map. What kind of Hollywood Game is that?
We spoke to some insiders about the who behind the scenes feud and we learned that Lee Daniels played the bitter card after he asked Mo’Nique to pay for her own airfare and accomodations to promote the film when it premiered. Mo’Nique told him that she could not afford it and asked to be paid to do the promo tour. Lee allegedly said there was no budget and all cast members had to fund their own way, which we find very interesting because she had already taken a cut in pay to do him a favor.
We have worked with Mo’Nique on several occassions ourselves and NEVER had a problem with her. She was always going far and beyond to help make a film, so we are questioning Daniels story. It sound more spiteful than anything, even petty and makes us wonder if Daniels doesn’t have real backing behind his production will the actors get paid?
You would think with Oprah attached money should NOT have been an issue. There is more to the story than he is revealing to the media.
We’ve also met her husband who they claim that he has a reputation of being hard to work with, and it poses a huge problem for her career since he’s her manager. One sentence would shut him down when you are the director, ” I work with the star and that is NOT you,” manager or not.
Anyways, Lee went on CNN to tell his side of the story and he says Mo’Nique’s refusal to play the Hollywood game and insane demands hurt her tremendously.
He tells CNN’s Don Lemon:
“During the [Oscar] campaign, she was making unreasonable demands, and I remember thinking ‘this is when reverse racism happens.
“You have to thank the producers of the film, you have to thank the studio, and she didn’t understand that. People aren’t going to respond well. I love her, I’ve spoken to her. She’s brilliant, and I love working with brilliant people.
“I think that there were demands that were made on the ‘Precious’ campaign that everyone knows hurt her. I told her that. You’ve gotta play ball. This is not just show — it is show business.”
Don Lemon then told Lee that some would view him as a sellout for his comments and Lee responds:
“I guess I’m a sell out then! Call it what it is. I am not going to not work, I am not going to not tell my truth… I’ll see you in the theaters!”
Check out the video below:
Thoughts?
