http://www.eonline.com/news/626853/mo-nique-says-roles-in-empire-and-the-butler-just-went-away-lee-daniels-told-me-i-ve-been-blackballed

I think it's a bunch of hooey, she probably just a big pain in the ass to work with. We know her comedy isn't original, why would anything else about her be special?

I wouldn't be surprised if she was blackballed, but claiming she was the first choice for various roles Oprah got is a fast way to make sure both Lee Daniels and Oprah (probably two of the three most powerful black artists in entertainment at the moment) avoid her at all costs.

The fact is that a lot of successful indies are produced on the cheap, the stars make nothing for them, and if they take off their budgets for promotion and campaigning are still very, very limited. What I'd always heard was that she wanted to be paid on every leg of the press tour for Precious, and that alienated people.

I think she's talented and she was incredible in the film and it's a shame she can't get more work, but I also know you've gotta take [!@#$%^&*] to get up the ladder - and wait to get paid.

I think she's talented and she was incredible in the film and it's a shame she can't get more work, but I also know you've gotta take [!@#$%^&*] to get up the ladder - and wait to get paid.

Yep.

I wouldn't be surprised if she was blackballed, but claiming she was the first choice for various roles Oprah got is a fast way to make sure both Lee Daniels and Oprah (probably two of the three most powerful black artists in entertainment at the moment) avoid her at all costs.

It doesn't help that Oprah doesn't take well to being made to look foolish. She likes her acolytes to massage her ego.

It doesn't help that Oprah doesn't take well to being made to look foolish. She likes her acolytes to massage her ego.

Yep. That, too.

http://www.eonline.com/news/626853/mo-nique-says-roles-in-empire-and-the-butler-just-went-away-lee-daniels-told-me-i-ve-been-blackballed

I think it's a bunch of hooey, she probably just a big pain in the ass to work with. We know her comedy isn't original, why would anything else about her be special?

The article makes it sound true:

"Mo'Nique is a creative force to be reckoned with. Her demands through Precious were not always in line with the campaign. This soured her relationship with the Hollywood community."

I think if you want to make demands that annoy people (whatever they were) you need to be a bigger star than Monique. When I opened the thread I was initially unsure who you were talking about. If Oprah makes demands that's one thing, but Monique doesn't have that clout, fame, power of box office draw.

Mo'Nique is an incredible talent and earned every bit of that Oscar. But her attitude sucks and there are a ton of other just as talented people, with better attitudes, who can play the parts being offered her.

Edited February 20, 201510 yr by Mr. Vixen

While I think she could have benefited from stronger advisors to lead her through the ins and outs of the process, it's really besides the point because she was determined not to play the game. In the end, she may have lost for good. Who knows? Keep in mind that Mo'Nique is of a traveling stand-up comedian background. Booking out of town gigs only to be stiffed at the end of the night by unscrupulous club owners isn't myth, it's a stinging reality for comedians, and they learn to be fierce about their time, services rendered, and money. I think that's where she was coming from. If TPTB wanted her to play a game she didn't care to play, they were going to have to pay her for it, take her or leave her. She got an Oscar, the film got more press, and now it's over. I don't doubt that she is strong-willed and stubborn and probably a pain in the ass at times, but she probably wouldn't have to overcompensate if she'd always been treated fairly in the past. As The Caravans, Albertina Walker, Shirley Caesar, Inez Andrews, Dorothy Norwood, et al, had to take the same hard ass approach after continually being duped and cheated and taken advantage of as black female artists.

The thing is that the stand-up world isn't the same thing as Hollywood, and certainly not the same thing as the indie world, where nobody gets paid rat [!@#$%^&*].

Somebody should've told that to Mo'Nique.

Sounds like her husband is part of the problem.

http://www.styleite.com/news/about-that-time-moniques-husband-threatened-me-and-why-hollywood-blackballed-them/

What is it with AA comediennes and their ridiculous significant others? Mo'Nique. Sherri Shepherd. Whoopi. Do these "sistahs of comedy" not know how to pick good men?

She was absolutely blacklisted and the man that had a hand in said blacklisting told it to her straight no chaser, which is why she is putting him on blast.

Sounds like her husband is part of the problem.

http://www.styleite.com/news/about-that-time-moniques-husband-threatened-me-and-why-hollywood-blackballed-them/

It an age old story. Some spouse declares himself "manager" and proceeds to sabotage the person they supposedly love all because they want to feel in control.

There was a claim on Gawker (I know) a few days back that Mo'Nique and her husband insisted on be paid completely in cash, up front, at the start of either some film shoot or a PR junket or something - like she was still a stand-up comic working the Best Western circuit in Ohio. I can see why that's impossible to deal with.