{"id":203489,"date":"2019-02-23T00:20:38","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T05:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=203489"},"modified":"2019-02-23T00:20:38","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T05:20:38","slug":"empire-producers-cut-smollett-from-seasons-last-episodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/23\/empire-producers-cut-smollett-from-seasons-last-episodes\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Empire’ producers cut Smollett from season’s last episodes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The announcement came a day after Smollett turned himself in to police, appeared in court on a felony charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report, and left jail after posting bond. (File Photo<\/a>: @jussiesmollett\/Instagram<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CHICAGO \u2013 Actor Jussie Smollett’s character on \u201cEmpire\u201d will be removed from the final two episodes of this season in the wake of his arrest on charges that he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself last month in downtown Chicago, producers of the Fox TV show announced Friday.<\/p>\n

The announcement came a day after Smollett turned himself in to police, appeared in court on a felony charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report, and left jail after posting bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays,\u201d \u201cEmpire\u201d executive producers Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer said in a written statement. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series is on a midseason break and returns March 13 with nine episodes. The last two episodes of the fifth season were still being made when Smollett was charged. At this point, Smollett is part of the seven already completed episodes.<\/p>\n

Smollett, who is black and gay, plays a gay character on the show that follows a black family as they navigate the ups and downs of the recording industry.<\/p>\n

Police said Smollett planned the hoax because he was unhappy with his salary and wanted to promote his career. Before the attack, he also sent a letter that threatened him to the Chicago studio where \u201cEmpire\u201d is shot, police said.<\/p>\n

As authorities laid out their case against Smollett, the narrative that emerged Thursday sounded like that of a filmmaker who wrote, cast, directed and starred in a short movie.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Smollett gave detailed instructions to the accomplices who helped him stage the attack in January, including telling them specific slurs to yell, urging them to shout \u201cMAGA country\u201d and even pointing out a surveillance camera that he thought would record the beating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe Mr. Smollett wanted it on camera,\u201d police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters at a Thursday morning news conference. \u201cBut unfortunately that particular camera wasn’t pointed in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smollett’s legal team issued a statement Thursday night, calling the actor a \u201cman of impeccable character and integrity who fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence.\u201d The statement called Johnson’s news conference \u201can organized law enforcement spectacle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe presumption of innocence, a bedrock in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr. Smollett,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Smollett is earning more than $100,000 per episode, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because salary details were involved. The studio declined to comment on the actor’s salary.<\/p>\n

As is customary with a successful TV series, regular cast members on \u201cEmpire\u201d received a boost in pay as part of contract extensions that followed the drama’s renewal for a second season, the person said.<\/p>\n

Smollett is counted among the series regulars.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/p>\n

AP Television Writer Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2013 Actor Jussie Smollett’s character on \u201cEmpire\u201d will be removed from the final two episodes of this season in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":203493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-don-babwin","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}