Over the weekend, a hundred or so TV writers wrote an open letter to Tyler Perry asking why his show House of Payne was the only scripted TV program on television without a contract guaranteeing residuals or health coverage for the writers. Four of those writers say they were fired for union organizing and picketed the opening of Perry’s new studio in Atlanta on Saturday night. Among those who attended:
Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Cicely Tyson, Louis Gossett Jr, Holly Robinson Peete, Tracey Edmonds, music mogul L.A. Reid, singer John Legend, baseball legends Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds. Mary J. Blige, Patti Labelle and Gladys Knight.
Criticism of Perry continued today, when an actress on his show posted another angry letter on the WGA’s website, and Nikki Finke still seems to be the only one reporting on it. I don’t have much to add, this is just something I want you to keep in mind a month from now when the big media outlets pick up on it and Oprah has him on her show so she can act all indignant as if it’s the first time she’s heard. Oprah cures injustice! everyone will say, and they’ll let her make another big speech at the next awards show. But Oprah is like Mr. Scrooge, she kicks pigeons when no one’s looking and she hates babies, and I heard she visits the animal shelter every six weeks to watch the puppies die.
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Yes, but we ALL know that Oprah is not the cure for erectile dysfunction. In fact, she’s probably one of the factors.
Wait, they’re writers and that was the best they could come up with?
Not even a “Bitch better have my money!”, c’mon now!
And YOU get a knife in the back! And YOU, and YOU, and YOU! Everybody gets a knife in the back!
I was the biggest Tyler Perry fan. He was the first black person I wasn’t afraid of. His pupped, Lester, was the second.
Puppet, gosh darn it.
Glen’s back! We missed you, you crazy kid.
That white guy has that “Please don’t shank me, Darkie. We cool.” look on his face.
How Holly Robinson was not the first name on the list of attendees is beyond me. If “Hangin with Mr. Cooper” doesn’t guarantee top billing on any list of celebrities, I think I’ve lost my ability to trust.
Yeah!
TP needs more old white guys to be funnier. That is all.
Clearly the white guy is the one who made the posters. How else do you think the “c” made it into “respect”?
You know what was missing at the party? Leftover chicken.
“Tyler Perry. Respec’ yo writas’”
When reporters arrived, Barry Bonds asked them, “Would you rather nag Mr. Perry about scandalous practices against his writers or watch me sock some dingers?”
I think a better tactic would have been to turn in a bunch of episodes with special guest star Madea sentenced to community service cleaning pig stalls, or strapped to a dialysis machine and trying to fend of the advances of a doctor played by Bobcat Goldthwaite.
Honestly, I’ve never watched the show, so I’m just assuming they’ve already exhausted the rib-eating contest and sickle-cell anemia angles.
New up!
Man, there’s nothing to this.
Tyler Perry has writers?