EXCLUSIVE: Gabrielle Union is set to sit down with NBC this week over what really happened on America’s Got Talent and why she was sacked from the Simon Cowell created show. However, despite seeking to improve the culture and atmosphere on the competition series. the L.A.’s Finest star will not be returning to AGT under any foreseeable circumstances.
“Gabrielle believes there is a toxicity that has become normalized at Talent,” an insider told Deadline today. “She wants to help fix that, because she loved a lot of her time on the show last season, even with the issues with Simon and what have you,” the source added. “But she could never go back, even if they did a 360 and asked her to for another season, no.”
Having yet to speak to NBC directly about claims of racial bias, discrimination and more that Union supposedly experienced on her Season 14 stint on AGT and the alleged retaliation that followed, the Being Mary Jane actor is scheduled to meet in the next few days with outside counsel that NBC have recently retained. It is unclear if anyone from the Comcast-owned network will actually be in the Beverly Hills law firm meeting. If anyone from NBC proper is there, if will only be members of the senior in-house legal team, I’ve heard.
Supposedly caught by surprise by most of the claims surrounding Union and fellow judge Julianne Hough sudden exit, NBC, sources close to the matter say, is now determined to show that any investigation initiated by them maintains strict and unbiased independence.
Dropped from the show after just one season, Union retained muscular Hollywood attorney Bryan Freedman last week as news of her departure from AGT became public on November 22. Having represented Megyn Kelly last year in her successful and ultimately lucrative battle leaving NBC News, the Freedman + Taitelman LLP partner is no stranger to playing hardball if required with the network.
Freedman did not responded to request for comment today on the state of affairs from Deadline. With stinging remarks on the situation from the head of Time’s Up earlier today too, NBC representatives Monday said that they are standing by their statement of Sunday morning.
Yesterday the network and producers Fremantle and Cowell’s Syco put out another statement as the fallout from Union being “fired,” as her husband and NBA legend Dwyane Wade said, intensified. “We remain committed to ensuring a respectful workplace for all employees and take very seriously any questions about workplace culture,” the statement read. “We are working with Ms. Union through her representatives to hear more about her concerns, following which we will take whatever next steps may be appropriate.”
The meeting this week is intended to be those next steps.
Though Union is done being on-camera for AGT, the apology seeking actor is apparently leaning towards a public inclusion effort from NBC and the show, as well as a reconfiguration of the internal communication and overseeing structure.
Yet, unsurprisingly, as SAG-AFTRA start a probe of their own, the finger pointing is well underway on the Fremantle and Syco produced AGT, with all sides putting the blame for how Union’s concerns and pink slipping were handled on the others. “Nobody asked too many questions about AGT, because everything seemed fine and the numbers were so good year after year,” one network source asserted, noting that the show was seen as “Cowell’s domain” within NBC “for the most part.”
With whispers of too many cooks in the AGT kitchen, NBC are now trying to gather what was said to whom by who and which people were Union talking to about matters such as her hair and wardrobe choices being “too black.” The network brass also wants to know who let go never aired inappropriate jokes by guest Jay Leno, illegal inside smoking by Cowell and what truly transpired in a May meeting between Union and the once American Idol star at his Malibu home.
At that Cowell requested gathering, which was first reported last week by Vulture and Deadline has confirmed, the famously acerbic Brit is said to have bluntly told Union not to take her concerns to NBC overlords but to him and he would handle.
Just on face value alone, the meeting has a certain corrosive irony as Cowell’s behavior and the tone he established on AGT was one of Union’s primary concerns.
But, as Shonda Rhimes and others add their voices to a chorus of NBC critics, that might be for another meeting, if you know what I mean?
I’m with @itsgabrielleu. @NBCUniversal: Discrimination, harassment & retaliation have no place on #AmericasGotTalent or any workplace. I’m joining @TIMESUPNOW in calling on NBC’s leadership to take concrete and long-term action to fix its toxic culture.https://t.co/IBSQMBTHi8
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) December 2, 2019
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Gabrielle Union To Meet With NBC Soon On ‘America’s Got Talent’s “Toxicity,” Will Not Be Returning As Judge - Deadline
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