Director Lee Daniels can’t seem to get his stories straight on why Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique was blackballed in Hollywood. First he said she was blackballed due to “reverse racism.” Now he’s singing a different tune.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mo’Nique said Daniels told her in a phone call that she was blackballed because she “didn’t play the game.” When she asked him to specify, she said Daniels told her that her husband and manager Sidney Hicks was “outbidding you.”
Daniels, who is openly gay, clarified his statement in an interview with CNN’s openly gay anchor Don Lemon.
Daniels admitted that he used the term “reverse racism” in the wrong context when he told Mo”Nique that she was blackballed.
“I didn’t say that exactly… We were out on the campaign and she was making unreasonable demands… and this is where reverse racism, I think, happens,” he said.
Daniels then confabulated 2 separate incidents — that Mo’Nique was making unreasonable demands while promoting ‘Precious’ and not thanking him when she won her Oscar award. “I said, ‘You have to thank the producers of the film, you have to thank the studio,’ and I think she didn’t understand that. And I said, ‘Listen, people aren’t going to respond well if you don’t.”
Daniels also added that Mo’Nique should “play ball” if she ever wants to work in Hollywood again.
On Thursday, Mo’Nique appeared on CNN with Don Lemon to rebut Daniels’ claims that she was making demands.
“Actually, there were no demands,” she said. “There was a request from the movie studio, and they called and requested that I fly to France for the Cannes Film Festival. I simply said, ‘I respectfully decline.’ Because if you can remember at the time there was a talk show called, ‘The Mo’Nique Show,’ I was doing a comedy tour, I was actually in the awards season of the awards, and I’m also a wife and I’m a mommy. So when they called, I had a couple of days just down time, I wanted to spend that with my husband and my kids.”
Mo’Nique also explained Daniels’ vague comment about her husband “outbidding” her.
“When the third call came and they said, ‘What is it going to take to get Mo’Nique to France to the Cannes Film Festival?’ And my husband said, ‘Is there a number associated with it?’ And they said, ‘oh, we would never pay for anyone to do any promotions for a movie.’ And we said, ‘We understood.’ Because what people didn’t know was, I was paid $50,000 to do the movie ‘Precious,’” she continued. “And it really wasn’t about the money, I’m not complaining because I signed up to do it with my friend.”
Why are we not surprised that Daniels is a typical messy queen? He and Oprah can not get over the fact that Mo’Nique won an Oscar for ‘Precious’ and they didn’t.
Photo: INFevents.com
