Fox is Supporting Jussie Smollett in Wake of Rumors of Attack Being Staged
Recently rumors have been swirling that actor Jussie Smollett staged the attack that he reported in January.
But why would Smollett do something like that?
Well, sources told ABC7 Eyewitness News that police were investigating whether or not the actor had staged the attack because he was getting written off Empire and wanted to save his job.
20th Century Fox recently shut down those claims in a statement.
“The idea that Jussie Smollett has been, or would be, written off of Empire is patently ridiculous,” the statement reads.“He remains a core player on this very successful series and we continue to stand behind him.
Empire’s writers also took to Twitter to defend Smollett.
“The writers of Empire have never planned or even discussed writing Jussie Smollett off of the show,” the writers’ account tweeted.
The Attack
Smollett told police that he was attacked on January 29th around 2 a.m. in Chicago.
He alleges that the attackers shouted “this is MAGA country,” poured an unknown substance on him, and shouted homophobic slurs.
On Thursday, Smollett sat down with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America to shed light on what happened and shut down any inconsistencies that might have been reported.
‘There is a level of pride there,” he said of why he didn’t immediately go to the police after the attack. “We live in a society where as a gay man you are considered somehow to be weak and I am not weak. I am not weak and we as a people are not weak.”
He told Roberts that a
“I looked up and saw there was a camera, directly on the post on the intersection,” he said. “Then the detective told me that the camera was facing north so they didn’t have it and that was disappointing.’
He went on to express how much he wants the video to be found.
“I want that video found so badly because, for probably four reasons,” he said. “Number one, I want them to find the people that did it. Number two, I want them to stop being able to say ‘alleged’ attack. Number three, I want them to see that I fought back. I want a little gay boy who might watch this to see that I fought the f*** back. They ran off. I didn’t,” he said.
He also addressed the rumors that he was hiding something by not handing his phone over to the police.
“They wanted me to give my phone to the tech for three to four hours,” he explained. “And I’m sorry but, I’m not going to do that because I have private pictures and videos and phone numbers, my partner’s number, my family’s numbers, my cast mates’ numbers, my private emails, private songs, voice memos, pictures.”
The Chicago Police Department has also commented on reports that the attack was staged.
“Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives,” Anthony Guglielmi, Chief Communications Officer for the department tweeted. “Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.”
Read more: Who is Jussie Smollett Dating?
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