Gabrielle Union Says NBC Threatened her Agent: ‘Gabrielle Better Watch Who She Calls a Racist’
Gabrielle Union is in the middle of a discrimination lawsuit with NBC and says the network threatened her agent.
The actress appeared on The Daily Social Distancing Show With Trevor Noah and says the chairman, Paul Telegdy, is penalizing her based on “inflammatory” information that was given to him.
“He then threatens my agent. Gabrielle better watch who she calls a racist’ in the middle of an investigation about racism and discrimination. This is what’s happening from the top of the company.”
Gabby was fired from America’s Got Talent a year after taking the gig and claims NBC is “a snake pit of racial offenses” in her harassment complaint.
Union says things popped off out the gate when her co-host Simon Cowell was smoking indoors. “When your boss, the person who has the ability to determine who gets opportunities, believes law doesn’t apply to him,” she said on the late night show. “And he does it (smoking) in full view of NBC and Fremantle and Syco. And no one cares he’s exposing employees to secondhand smoke — that’s day one, that’s within the first hour — what message do you think that sends to anyone that has an issue with the very real racism and lack of accountability?”
She said the problem isn’t working with “bad apples as opposed to addressing and making those bad apples accountable.”
She added, “In front of and behind the camera, there has to be an increase in representation from across the board, from the top to the bottom — who gets to make the decisions of which projects to green light, who is a part of those development processes, who gets to determine budgets.”
Gabrielle Union went on to detail her mental state. ”The nonstop onslaught of trauma… I don’t even know if anxiety is a big enough word,” Union revealed. “It feels like terror in my body. You try to figure out how best you can cope and then help.”
NBC flat out denied Union’s claims. “The allegation that anyone involved in this process threatened Ms. Union is categorically untrue. We took Ms. Union‘s concerns seriously, and engaged an outside investigator who found an overarching culture of diversity on the show.”