Blackballed: The Mo’Nique Story, or How to Screw Yourself Out of a Paycheck

It’s the oldest story in the world:

Movie studio tells actress to get her black ass on a plane to Cannes to promote Precious before the Oscars. Actress says that ain’t part of her damn job. Movie studio offers to upgrade her hotel if she would just go and promote this movie. Actress reiterates that that ain’t part of her damn job. Studio asks one last time, and then Actress asks…Studio replies…Actress wins Academy Award and throws in a little dig…To which Hollywood responded…So now, Mo’Nique (I’ll save my thoughts on unnecessary apostrophes and capitalizations for another time), is butthurt because our Brista Lee Daniels told her she had been blackballed (and not in a good way) because she had not played the game in the run-up to the Oscars after Precious. She claims that roles in The Butler and Empire suddenly dried up, and the recognition (and coinage) one would expect after winning an Oscar never materialized.Well what did she expect to happen? Your boss gave you an order and you refused to comply. Now you are mad because no one will hire you. What Mo’Nique (SRSLY girl, you know there is ALREADY an accepted way to spell that word, right?) failed to realize is that you can’t criticize the way people play the game and then get pissed when no one picks you for their team.

We see this with ThaKiddz all the time. They get pissed because they can’t make more money or get that promotion, or whatever, but they aren’t willing to put in the work. They complain about their bosses and wonder why they constantly get passed over. They refuse any opportunity or assignment that is even slightly beyond their assigned duties because it’s not part of their job, and then wonder why they’ve been in the same spot for ten years. Ya Brista has hired many people over the past ten years and I can tell you that anyone who ever told me, explicitly or implicitly, that whatever task I assigned them was not their job did not last long. And you best believe if anyone asked me my opinion about them, I told them the truth. If you want to call that blackballing, then so be it. Back to Mo’Nique, though…

The studio told her that they didn’t pay actors to promote films. I guess she didn’t like that, but if she had thought about it, she could have worked that to her benefit. Let’s keep it cute. Even though she only made $50,000 for Precious, she ain’t exactly waiting for that $300 unemployment check to come. Because she is an actress, that entire trip was a business expense that she could have written off. After winning that Oscar, she should have been everywhere. She could have been the wife in The Butleror Cookie Lyon on EmpireANYhooo…

Tha Kiddz need to be reminded that no one is going to sing your praises for doing exactly what your contract says. Either get out there, be a team player and make shit happen, or quit your bitchin’ when hoes pass you by. As for Mo’Nique, when it comes time to do promos for Blackbird, her ass needs to be the first one on the plane and the last one off!