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US Actor Jussie Smollett Jailed for Staged Attack

Jussie Smollett at a Chicago courthouse on 10 March 2022 to hear he had been sentenced to almost five months in prison. POOL GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Jussie Smollett at a Chicago courthouse on 10 March 2022 to hear he had been sentenced to almost five months in prison. POOL GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
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US Actor Jussie Smollett Jailed for Staged Attack

Jussie Smollett at a Chicago courthouse on 10 March 2022 to hear he had been sentenced to almost five months in prison. POOL GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Jussie Smollett at a Chicago courthouse on 10 March 2022 to hear he had been sentenced to almost five months in prison. POOL GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

US actor Jussie Smollett was sentenced to almost five months in prison Thursday after being found guilty of falsely telling police he was the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime in 2019 -- an attack prosecutors said he himself staged.

The gay 39-year-old African-American was found guilty in December of "planning" the fake assault by paying two Nigerian brothers $3,500, and of lying to police in his depositions, AFP said.

"You really crave the attention and you wanted to get the attention," Chicago Judge James Linn told the former "Empire" star as he read out the sentence.

He said the actor had a streak that was "profoundly arrogant and selfish and narcissistic."

"This was premeditated to the extreme... You've destroyed your life as you knew it," Limn said, adding that "you did damage to real hate crimes victims."

He said Smollett was "just a charlatan, pretending to be a victim of a hate crime.".

Smollett, who was to be incarcerated Thursday evening, will have to serve the first 150 days of his sentence in prison as part of a total of 30 months on probation. He must also repay $120,106 to the Chicago Police to cover their investigation costs.

"I'm innocent, I did not do this," Smollet said as the sentence was delivered.

"I’m not suicidal, if something happens when I'm in there [in jail] I did not do it to myself," he added, before leaving the courtroom with a raised fist.

Smollett's lawyers and family had begged the judge for leniency and asked for an alternative to prison, or for a suspended sentence.

The fallen star of the hit television series "Empire" has always maintained his innocence.

He said he was attacked in the middle of the night on January 29, 2019 in a Chicago street by two masked men who he said they were supporters of then-president Donald Trump.

He told police they made racist and homophobic slurs against him and put a noose around his neck.

Prosecutors accused Smollett of hiring two acquaintances, brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, to stage the attack while invoking Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, after the actor had received a legitimate piece of hate mail which he felt was not taken seriously by his employers.

The case took a strange turn when Cook County prosecutors dropped the initial 16 felony counts against him in March 2019.

But he was again indicted in February 2020 by a grand jury in Cook County, which handles crimes in Chicago, on six counts of disorderly conduct related to the alleged false reporting.

The case had initially sent shock waves through a deeply divided country still plagued by racial and sexual discrimination, and the actor had immediately received support from celebrities in political and cultural circles.

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‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator’ Make Gravity-Defying Theater Debuts

People wait to watch a screening of the film "Wicked" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
People wait to watch a screening of the film "Wicked" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator’ Make Gravity-Defying Theater Debuts

People wait to watch a screening of the film "Wicked" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
People wait to watch a screening of the film "Wicked" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)

With a combined $270 million in worldwide ticket sales, “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” breathed fresh life into a box office that has struggled lately, leading to one of the busiest moviegoing weekends of the year.

Jon M. Chu’s lavish big-budget musical “Wicked,” starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, debuted with $114 million domestically and $164.2 million globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates Sunday. That made it the third-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind only “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Inside Out 2.” It’s also a record for a Broadway musical adaptation.

Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” a sequel to his 2000 best picture-winning original, launched with $55.5 million in ticket sales. With a price tag of around $250 million to produce it, “Gladiator II” was a big bet by Paramount Pictures to return to the Coliseum with a largely new cast, led by Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal. While it opened with a touch less than the $60 million predicted in domestic ticket sales, “Gladiator II” has performed well overseas. It added $50.5 million internationally.

Going into the weekend, box office was down about 11% from last year and some 25% from pre-pandemic times. That meant this week's two headline films led a much-needed resurgence for theaters. With “Moana 2” releasing Wednesday, Hollywood might be looking at historic sales over the Thanksgiving holiday.

“This weekend’s two strong openers are invigorating a box office that fell apart after a good summer,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment.

The collision of the two movies led to some echoes of the “Barbenheimer” effect of last year, when “Barbie" and “Oppenheimer” launched simultaneously. The nickname this time, “Glicked,” wasn’t quite as catchy and the cultural imprint was also notably less. Few people sought out a double feature this time. The domestic grosses in 2023 – $162 million for “Barbie” and $82 million for “Oppenheimer” – were also higher.

But the counter-programming effect was still potent for “Wicked” and “Gladiator II,” which likewise split broadly along gender lines. And it was again the female-leaning release – “Wicked,” like “Barbie” before it – that easily won the weekend. About 72% of ticket buyers for “Wicked” were female, while 61% of those seeing “Gladiator II” were male.

And while “Barbenheimer” benefitted enormously from meme-spread word-of-mouth, both “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” leaned on all-out marketing blitzes.

Both movies pulled out all the stops in global advertising campaigns that spanned everything from “Wicked” Mattel dolls (some of which led to an awkward recall) to an Airbnb cross-promotion with the actual Colosseum in Rome. For “Gladiator II,” Paramount even took the unusual step of simultaneously running a one-minute trailer on more than 4,000 TV networks, radio station and digital platforms.

Though “Wicked” will face some direct competition from “Moana 2,” it would seem to be better set up for a long and lucrative run in theaters. Even at 2 hours and 40 minutes, the film has had mostly stellar reviews. Audiences gave it an “A” on CinemaScore. The reception for “Wicked” has been strong enough that Oscar prognosticators expect it to be a contender for best picture at the Academy Awards, among other categories.

Producers, perhaps sensing a hit, also took the step of splitting “Wicked” in two. Part two, already filmed, is due out next November. Each “Wicked” installation cost around $150 million to make.

“Gladiator II” has also enjoyed good reviews, particularly for Washington's charismatic performance. Audience scores, though, were weaker, with ticket buyers giving it a “B” on CinemaScore. “Gladiator II” will make up for some of that, however, with robust international sales. It launched in many overseas markets a week ago, earning $87 million before landing in North America.