Jussie Smollett. (File Photo).The Canadian Press
U.S. television network Fox on Tuesday renewed drama series Empire for a sixth season but said there were no plans to bring back the character played by Jussie Smollett, the actor who said he was the victim of a hate crime in January.
Chicago police accused Mr. Smollett of making up an attack against him, but the actor maintained his innocence and prosecutors dismissed criminal charges against him.
Mr. Smollett played gay singer-songwriter Jamal Lyon on the show about a family in the hip-hop entertainment business. Fox did leave a door open to possibly bring him back by extending an option on his contract.
“By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett’s option for season six, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to Empire,” according to a statement from 20th Century Fox TV and Fox Entertainment.
Empire airs on the Fox broadcast network, a unit of Fox Corp. The series is produced by the Fox television studio, which was recently sold to Walt Disney Co.
A spokesperson for Mr. Smollett said in a statement that the actor was “grateful to Fox and Empire leadership, cast, crew and fans for their unwavering support.”
“We’ve been told that Jussie will not be on Empire in the beginning of the season, but he appreciates they have extended his contract to keep Jamal’s future open,” the spokesperson said.
Mr. Smollett, 36, who is black and gay, ignited a firestorm by telling police on Jan. 29 that two apparent supporters of President Donald Trump struck him, put a noose around his neck and poured bleach over him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs on a Chicago street.
Recently, two brothers who say they helped Mr. Smollett stage the attack against himself sued the Empire actor’s attorneys, accusing them of defamation by continuing to insist publicly that the brothers carried out a real, bigoted attack on Mr. Smollett despite knowing that was untrue.
Abimbola (Abel) Osundairo and Olabinjo (Ola) Osundairo said in a joint statement issued after their lawsuit was filed in federal court in Chicago that Mr. Smollett’s legal team has spread false accusations that have hurt their reputations and undermined their career prospects.
“We have sat back, and watched lie after lie being fabricated about us in the media only so one big lie can continue to have life,” they said. “These lies are destroying our character and reputation in our personal and professional lives.”
In their lawsuit, the Osundairos contend that even after prosecutors dropped the charges against Mr. Smollett despite saying they believed they could prove the attack was a hoax, Mr. Smollett’s attorneys kept saying in interviews that the Chicago-born brothers “led a criminally homophobic, racist and violent attack against Mr. Smollett.”
“Mr. Smollett’s attorneys, faced with an outraged public, did not retreat after their success [in getting charges dropped]. Instead, they doubled down the lawsuit states,” states the lawsuit, which names celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, fellow lawyer Tina Glandian and Mr. Geragos’s Los Angeles-based law firm as defendants.
In a joint statement, Mr. Geragos and Ms. Glandian called the lawsuit “ridiculous” and “a desperate attempt” by the brothers “to stay relevant and further profit from an attack they admit they perpetrated.”
“We look forward to exposing the fraud the Osundairo brothers and their attorneys have committed on the public,” they added.
Mr. Smollett has stood by his account that he was attacked in downtown Chicago early on Jan. 29 by two masked men who beat him, shouted racial and anti-gay slurs, poured bleach on him, and looped a rope around his neck. He said his attackers also shouted slogans in support of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The city of Chicago has filed a lawsuit against Mr. Smollett in a bid to recoup the costs of its investigation of his initial claim, with the city saying — at minimum — that it now wants triple the amount it initially asked Smollett to pay.
The suit comes after Mr. Smollett refused a demand that he send the city US$130,106 to reimburse Chicago for overtime as police sought to verify Smollett’s account.
The lawsuit doesn’t specify an amount of money the city is seeking but does indicate it wants more than US$390,000 plus “further relief as this Court deems just and equitable.” It also asks that Mr. Smollett be ordered to foot any legal bills Chicago incurs in suing him.
More than two dozen officers and detectives spent two weeks investigating Mr. Smollett’s claims, with the police department forced to pay for 1,836 overtime hours, the filing says.
The city’s resolve to take Mr. Smollett to civil court follows a surprising decision by prosecutors in March to drop all criminal charges accusing him of staging the incident, saying they believed they could prove the charges but that it wasn’t worth the time and expense.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel denounced the decision as “a whitewash of justice,” and others criticized the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for not requiring an apology and an admission of guilt from Mr. Smollett as a condition for tossing the case.
With files from The Associated Press