Photo Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski / AP
Jussie Smollett’s fate on Empire has officially come into serious question. First, a statement from Fox came saying they were seeking to “avoid further disruption on set” by making the decision to remove him from the remainder of the season of the show. “The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us. Jussie has been an important member of our EMPIRE family for the past five years and we care about him deeply,” the statement said. “While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out.” This statement was signed off on by Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer.
He visited the set last night appearing to have just finished crying. Miguel Almaguer with NBC said on the Today Show that Smollett “apologized to the cast and vehemently denied any involvement in any lies.” That hasn’t exactly been enough for the cast who have been described as being “f**king furious.” They feel that they’ve been there for him the entire time only to find out he was lying in their faces. He’s even changed his number because of the cast members who have blown up his phone looking for answers. Only those in his circle now have his number. Their concern is that his behavior is going to hurt the show’s reputation. People questioned from day 1 if this was a publicity stunt for the show. That’s definitely not a good thing. Arguments over how the situation should be handled have erupted and he still has his supporters as some simply can’t fathom him staging such a hoax.
Yesterday Smolett turned himself into police at 6am local time after being charged with a felony for filing a false police report Wednesday night. He had a bond hearing at 1:30pm and paid $10,000 bond. He’s since been ordered to have no contact with the Osundairo brothers. His next court date will be March 14th. Empire will be returning March 13th.