Actress Seyi Omooba, fired from a British revival of The Color Purple: The Musical over homophobic remarks, is facing £300,000 in legal fees.
The BBC reports that a UK court has ordered Omooba to pay £53,839 to her former agency and £259,356 to Curve, the theatre in Leicester where The Color Purple was scheduled to run. The production was canceled following the negative fallout from Omooba’s dismissal.
“We have always felt the case lacked any merit from the outset, but Seyi Omooba and her legal team continued to disregard our pleadings and chose to take our theatre to court irrespective of the facts,” Curve said in a statement. “Whilst we welcome this news, we would like to reiterate we do not condone any negativity aimed at Seyi Omooba and we respectfully ask anyone in support of Curve to remain kind and respectful.”
Related: A UK court put the smackdown on homophobic ‘Color Purple’ actress
The production would have opened in 2019 with Omooba in the role of Celie, the lesbian lead of The Color Purple. Following the announcement of her casting, actor Aaron Lee Lambert uncovered tweets from 2014 in which Omooba condemned homosexuality.
After six days of social media backlash, Curve offered to pay out Omooba’s full salary and recast the role. She refused, instead choosing to sue for wrongful termination.
@Seyiomooba Do you still stand by this post? Or are you happy to remain a hypocrite? Seeing as you’ve now been announced to be playing an LGBTQ character, I think you owe your LGBTQ peers an explanation. Immediately. pic.twitter.com/GK2xbzZYgy
— Aaron Lee Lambert (@aleelambert) March 15, 2019
In court, Omooba said she didn’t realize the character of Celie was lesbian, despite reading the original novel upon which the musical is based and seeing Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film version starring Whoopi Goldberg. While the film version does downplay Celie’s lesbianism, the book is explicit in describing it.
Omooba claimed that her career had suffered irreparable damage from the negative publicity.
The tribunal in her wrongful termination suit declared Omooba had “not done her homework or been paying attention, and that she still thought of the work in the frame of the Spielberg film.”
Lawyers for Omooba said they will appeal the decision.
dwick
good
Cam
I love that about the British legal system. You lose, you pay court costs.
MrKWalker68
Oh dear. How terrible for her. In this day of media and everything you post or say being screenshot, nobody is able to shoot off at the mouth. It’s a 2 pronged sword.
Essie
This is good news though I have no clue where she will get the money to pay the costs. That’s about $400K U.S., a lot of money for an actress who will most likely never work as an actor again. No pity for her though. She is an awful person.
Chrisk
I’ll bet she’s wishing she took the $ when she had the chance. Lol
scotto
She might not have to pay it herself. She was being backed by some christian pressure group although they have been keeping a low profile. They are keen on pushing the idea that christians are victimised and discriminated against and any protections for minority groups should be removed so the god-fearing can go back to targeting them.
Chrisk
So first she was fine playing a lesbian role. Then a fan confronted her and she goes full on bigot. However, the producer still bends over backwards and offers her the full amount she would’ve gotten but she wants blood and loses.
Eff this stupid bigoted C*nt.
RyanMBecker
Agreed but one correction: Aaron Lee Lambert, the man who confronted Omooba about the old tweet, is no fan of hers. He’s a fellow actor who apparently has a distaste for hypocrisy and homophobia. Good for him.
Kangol2
She’s getting what she deserved, and watching her career go up in flames. Oh well.
CurtisIsTheOne
Ain’t karma a BITCH, gurl?
Dijonaise
That same old testament BS she’s touting has lots pretty damning rules about the ownership of people like her. Just like a religious bigot to pick and choose what she likes from a book written by cave dwelling troglodytes.
Daggerman
..everyone needs to understand the fact we humans are still evolving. We must try and stop thinking in outdated and prejudice ways. The Bible does NOT signify TRUTH it tells you of an idea of how life should be led. It does not reflect on real living attitudes of our today.
joeyt1969
Except her. She’s still a revolving animal.