Jussie Smollett Just Can’t Stop Hate-Criming Himself
Things are not going well for Jussie Smollett. Get used to reading that, because I have a feeling the bad news is just going to keep coming for him. As you know, a few weeks ago he claimed that he was hate crimed by some guys who recognized him from Empire but also love Donald Trump, though the police now believe he hired some extras from Empire to stage the attack, which Cardi B said “fucked up Black History Month.”
Well, despite his insistence that he didn’t stage the attack, the bad news keeps rolling in. I don’t even really know where to start with all the bad news for him, there’s just much of it. His motive for staging this attack was that no one seemed to care that someone sent a racist letter to him through Empire. But the two guys he hired to attack him said that he’s the one who sent the letter to himself.
And yeah, the return address on that letter just said “MAGA.” Same thing the attackers yelled. Really weird he got hate crimed twice by MAGA guys in the span of a week. That, right there, puts me firmly in the “he did that s**t” camp.
But the bad news doesn’t end there, because it turns out that lying to the police in the way he allegedly did is a felony in Illinois. Via Variety:
If Smollett falsified a police report, the charge is a Class 4 felony in Illinois, and carries a potential sentence of one to three years in prison. Smollett could also be ordered to pay restitution to compensate for the cost of the Chicago Police Department investigation.
“It’s a very, very, very serious situation,” said Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor who now works in criminal defense in Chicago. “He’s got some very significant exposure.”
What else could go wrong for Jussie? Well, there were rumors that he staged all of this because he was worried about being written off of Empire and now he’s being written off of Empire. Not entirely, but TMZ reported that he had his screen time slashed in the episode that’s filming this week.
Production sources tell TMZ … Jussie was supposed to have 9 scenes and a big musical number in the second to the last episode — which is being shot now — but 5 of his scenes have been cut, and his musical number has been 86’d.
As for the remaining 4 scenes … we’re told he’s no longer the focus. The scene features an ensemble, meaning he’s flanked by a number of cast members.
Things are not looking good for Smollett is the word here. He certainly raised his profile with this (alleged, he seems like he could get litigious about this) stunt, but not in a good way. There clearly is such a thing as bad publicity.
