{"id":48403,"date":"2019-04-25T06:15:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T12:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=48403"},"modified":"2019-04-25T06:15:29","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T12:15:29","slug":"empire-cast-members-call-for-jussie-smollett-to-return-for-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/empire-cast-members-call-for-jussie-smollett-to-return-for-next-season\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Empire\u2019 cast members call for Jussie Smollett to return for next season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 The top cast members of \u201cEmpire\u201d sent a letter to Fox Entertainment and Disney executives calling for Jussie Smollett to be brought back for the show\u2019s next season, not that his legal problems are behind him.<\/p>\n<p>Smollett was written out of the final two episodes of the show\u2019s fifth season.<\/p>\n<p>In early March, Smollett was indicted by a grand jury in Chicago on 16 felony counts related to making a false police report after he said he was the victim of a hate attack. He continues to assert his innocence.<\/p>\n<p>Smollett told police that two men \u201cgained his attention by yelling out racial and homophobic slurs towards him\u201d before attacking, pouring an \u201cunknown chemical substance\u201d on him and wrapping a rope around his neck. The assailants said \u201cThis is MAGA country\u201d as they fled, he also told police.<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks later, the criminal charges were dropped, the case was sealed and Smollett\u2019s record expunged. The Chicago Prosecutor\u2019s Office noted that Smollett had performed community service and forfeited his $100,000 bond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTogether, as a united front, we stand with Jussie Smollett and ask that our co-star, brother and friend be brought back for our sixth season of Empire. Throughout Empire\u2019s five seasons working with Jussie and watching how he has conducted himself throughout this traumatic event, we have come to know not just the character Jussie portrays, but also truly come to know Jussie\u2019s personal character. He is kind. He is compassionate. He is honest and above all he is filled with integrity,\u201d the letter said, according to the Deadline entertainment website.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday night, Smollett\u2019s character, gay musician Jamal Lyon, married his boyfriend Kai and left on his honeymoon, for his last appearance of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Smollett was born to a Jewish father and African-American mother.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"%E2%80%98Empire%E2%80%99%20cast%20members%20call%20for%20Jussie%20Smollett%20to%20return%20for%20next%20season\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7139],"tags":[8790,8795,9880,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48404,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48403\/revisions\/48404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}