Anthony Anderson is hosting the NAACP Awards again this Saturday and Extra asked him some questions about the show.
Terri Seymour first wanted to know if nominee Jussie Smollett will be there? The actor told her, “I hope he is here. I hope he wins, I hope everyone wins.” He added, “I am glad everything has worked out for him. But I hope he is here so he can celebrate with his community, with his family, and with his friends.”
Even though the charges were dropped, to me, no one is saying he is innocent. If he is guilty of staging a hate crime on himself, he hurt his community, family and friends. Therefore, would they want to celebrate with him? Even his Empire crew and cast are reportedly torn about welcoming him back to the show.
What Anderson should have said is, “I don’t know if he is coming, but I hope he does because it will be good for the ratings if he shows up.” Although, if Smollett were to go, his appearance would overshadow anything Anderson does. And is it just me, or does it seem like Anderson doesn’t like to share the spotlight with anyone ever since he started doing Black-ish.
I hope Smollett doesn’t attend. Everyone still needs time to heal. We don’t know what happened that night, but it seems like there are a lot more questions than answers. That is causing people, who never believed him, to think that he lied and we should not believe victims of a hate crime.
What Smollett needs to do, is take some time away from the spotlight and do the charitable work that appears to have helped him get the charges dropped. To me, if he tries to save his career now, it makes him look guilty. He needs to earn his way back like Robert Downey Jr. and Rob Lowe did.
Plus, can we be honest? Smollett’s career pretty much stalled during the second season of Empire. His music did not seem to break out and what else did he do besides the Fox show. The first two seasons people knew his name. However, how many people were like which one is Jussie when the news broke in January?
