Will the Jussie Smollett incident be one of the universe’s great unsolvable mysteries, like why the sky is blue or how Green Book won Best Picture? The verdict is technically still out on whether the Empire actor was really assaulted by Trump supporters or if he faked the whole thing for some so-far-elusive reason. But at least we know that Smollett feels comfortable enough returning to social media to post like he’s not been accused of filing a false police report.
The reason for the actor’s casual return? He wanted to celebrate Pride Month.
There was precious little actual Smollett content in the Instagram post. Instead, he ceded the floor to Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Oscar-winning playwright and screenwriter of Choir Boy, Steven Soderbergh’s High Flying Bird, and the play that inspired the film Moonlight, for which he also co-wrote the screenplay. Specifically, Smollett posted a video of his speech at Sunday’s Tony Awards.
“The bodies that uphold the great legacy of spirituals are often Black and queer,” McCraney says in the clip. “When will we love all of them for who they are, not just for what they can do?”
Beside the video read a simple caption: “So much PRIDE.”
It was Smollett’s first post since January 29, in what looks like mere hours before he told police he’d been attacked in the middle of the night on the streets of Chicago. The city’s police department eventually concluded that the actor had staged the crime, only to drop charges against him and order him to pay the city a fee to cover the investigation.
Smollett, who has maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal, has not yet paid up and is currently being sued by the city for more than $130,000. In other news, Empire honcho Lee Daniels announced last week that Smollett would not be returning to the show next season.
(Via Deadline)
