A lot of time and energy and, yes, money went into making THE COLOR PURPLE which was released today. The Broadway musical was far truer to the novel Alice Walker wrote so many of us have hoped it would be turned into a film. Thanks to Oprah Winfrey, it has been.
But, no surprise, Taraji P. Henson has been a storm could hanging over it. "More trouble than it's worth," Rickie Lee Jones sings in "Living It Up" and she might as well have been singing about Taraji.
When the focus should have been positive and upbeat ahead of the film's Christmas Day release, Taraji took it to the gutter -- as she so often does. See Stan's "Taraji competes with Jennifer Love to see who can be most whiny." Karen Hunter and so many others have been running with a 'beef' between Oprah and Taraji and how Taraji was ripped off and poor Taraji.
Taraji's always been a mess on any set. She's been a diva and a disappointment.
Oprah shouldn't have hired her to begin with.
Taraji cried on camera last week --boo hoo -- about pay inequity.
She didn't correct when people included her salary for THE COLOR PURPLE in the discussion. Why not? She always needs attention.
Taraji insists that she's not paid what she's worth.
And that's true if you buy the inflated opinion that she has of herself.
That inflated opinion led her to declare repeatedly in 2017 that she was about to become a movie star. Didn't happen. Instead, 2018 and 2019 saw her onscreen in lead roles in one film after another -- every single one flopped in the United States: PROUD MARY ($21 million), ACRIMONY ($46 million), WHAT MEN WANT ($54 million) and THE BEST OF ENEMIES ($10 million) -- no, those totals are not the totals for hit films. She had one live-action flop after another. And her most recent live-action film went straight to streaming.
B-b-b-b-but she is a TV star.
Was. EMPIRE started airing in 2015 and it was a huge hit for the first two seasons. Then it fell from being the fifth most watched series in the second season to the 22nd most watched in the third. As bad as that was, it was only about to get worse. Season four found it to be the 52nd most watched show. A huge fall off. More would take place in season five when Jussie Smollett pulled off his hoax (he staged a crime against himself in real life). Before the hoax, it was getting a little over five million viewers a week. After the hoax -- and after America learned Jussie not only made it up but paid off his 'attackers' - the show never got five million again and ended the season as the 68th most watched show. Could it get any lower? Yes. In the sixth and final season, it fell to the 80th most watched series. And all the production staff are very clear that they could have ridden out Jussie if Taraji hadn't kept lying for him. She insisted he was a victim, when he got convicted, she continued to whine for him, when he was put behind bars . . .
America hates her. That's the reality.
She fired her entire staff -- and bragged about it -- after EMPIRE ended because she didn't have jobs and endorsements lied up. The reason was because America hated her. She was a liar and some suspected she was in on it with Jussie insisting why else would she keep claiming he was innocent?
Taraji hasn't delieved a TV audience since 2017. She hasn't been in a hit film -- the ensemble piece HIDDEN FIGURES -- since 2015. And she's never carried a hit film.
There is no product endorsement because of the way she polls with Americans as a result of her Jussie nonsense.
She's damn lucky that Oprah gave her a supporting role in THE COLOR PURPLE but, being Taraji, gratitude isn't in her makeup.
So she's caused a cloud to move over the sunny day that the release of THE COLOR PURPLE should have been.
If she was underpaid -- we don't think she was, especially since she was lucky just to be hired -- that's on her at this point.
You say "no." You set your figure. If you think you're worth more, insist for more.
Sometimes the power of "no" is the only power you have.
Most actresses learn that before they hit 30. But Taraji's 53 and never learned it. Just like she never learned that, historically, no actress becomes a film star after the age of 36. In other words, Taraji long ago reached the highest rung she was going to. Sad that the industry grasped what she couldn't.
Oprah got the musical made, with a budget of $100 million. It's time for Karen Hunter and everyone else to stop trashing Oprah for the awful career that Taraji created for herself.