As you recall, actress and comedienne Mo’Nique was reportedly told by prominent director Lee Daniels (The Butler, Precious, “Empire”) that she had been “blackballed” in Hollywood because she had earned a reputation for being very difficult to work with and adamantly refused to play the Hollywood “game.”
Well, it turns out that it might not be the only reason why Mo’Nique has not seen major work in the industry since she took home the Academy Award for her role of a perverted and sick mother in the gritty film Precious that turned Gabby Sidibe into an urban household name. According to a man who used to work with her back in the day, Mo’Nique’s husband Sidney Hicks has also been fingerpointed as a major reason — if not the major reason — why roles have dried up for the once prominent actress (assuming that Mo’Nique was in high demand in the first place).
Sian Pierre used to work at BET as a content producer, when Mo’Nique was midst of her run as the network’s talk show host. He recalls a time in 2010 when he was working on the Oscar coverage for the network and had been asked to research the comedienne.
According to Pierre that’s when he began to uncover unsettling things about Mo’Nique and her husband-manager Sidney Hicks.
“And that’s when I started to learn about Mo’Nique, the business woman. She and her long-time husband/manager, Sidney Hicks, were becoming the talk of the industry because they allegedly asked for money to show up on carpets to support Precious. While she was not contractually obliged to show up to many of these carpets, most nominated actors “kissed the ring” to sweeten their hopes of a win, if not to continue hype around their nominated movie. But Mo’Nique and Sidney didn’t want to “play the game”, as she recently told The Hollywood Reporter. They wanted to get paid to play the game.
I couldn’t report on that, really. It wasn’t a fact I could prove, nor one I thought super important, given the weight of the film itself.”
The creator of the blog Swagger New York vividly recalls an explosive phone call he got from Mo’s husband when he thought Pierre was showing the actress’ dress for the Oscars on TV before the awards show.
“I will get you fired when I talk to your f**** boss!” Hicks allegedly screamed into the phone.
“On Tuesday afternoon, my phone rang. “Hi, this is Sidney. Who am I speaking with?” I had no idea who Sidney could be, I had no friends or work associates with the name. Before I could even finish my name, he began screaming and immediately it clicked. “ARE YOU THE ONE WHO TRIED TO SHOW MO’NIQUE’S F***** OSCAR DRESS ON TV?! ARE YOU THE PRODUCER?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I WILL GET YOU FIRED WHEN I TALK TO YOUR F**** BOSS.
“I took a breath and responded with something like ‘First of all, Sidney. Don’t scream at me. Tom and I never planned on actually shooting the dress, as the story isn’t about your wife, it’s about the designers who are dressing her.’ After a five minute back and forth, which was part-shouting match part macho ball-grabbing on his part, I was over dealing with Sidney, Mo’Nique’s nasty, mean husband.”
And that should give you a micro-hint at the macro problem of why no one wants to work with Mo’Nique. Because aside from “not playing the game,” she has a non-professional husband who does all of her dealings. And, frankly, Sidney is not someone anyone wants to actuallydeal with. So while playing the game would be helpful, being nice (and informed) would probably help too. I hope she gets her chance for a renaissance in an unforgiving Hollywood, but I also hope she (and Sidney) have changed the tune.
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