Reports: Jussie Smollett hasn't been seeking an Empire pay raise

Vulture

Chicago police allege the Empire star staged a hate crime attack on himself because he was "dissatisfied with his salary" on the Fox drama. Smollett is making around $125,000 per episode, according to Vulture and The Hollywood Reporter, which both report that Smollett hasn't been asking for a new contract with a bigger salary. "Neither Smollett nor his reps at United Talent Agency had made any noise about a pay hike in the weeks or months leading up to the events of the staged January attack," writes Vulture's Josef Adalian, citing two sources. Because he was a relative unknown, Smollett started out with a salary in the $40,000-$50,000 per-episode salary range, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But his pay was raised substantially after Season 2. As The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg explains, "given the current demand for talent in TV, when Netflix and Apple are driving the price for stars of all levels upwards, multiple sources describe Smollett's current salary to The Hollywood Reporter as being in the upper echelon for an actor with his experience on a successful show. Complicating Smollett's financials, however, is that his original Fox contract was a '360 deal.' That means it includes music elements similar to pacts for the stars of series like Glee. Under the deal, the studio controlled additional aspects of Smollett's musical career, and the actor-musician would earn additional cash based on iTunes sales from Empire music and from live concerts — should the revenue have come in north of what his original guarantee included."

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• Smollett apologized to Empire's cast and crew after his release on bail and reportedly said: "I swear to God, I did not do this"

 

• Smollett's attorneys say he "feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing"

 

• Trevor Noah skewers Smollett: "This is such a petty reason to pull off such a major crime"

 

• TMZ posts footage of Smollett's yanked Drop the Mic episode

 

• Clay Aiken is upset his Drop the Mic episode, which he won, won't air because of "dumb" Smollett

 

• Media should stop referring to Chicago-born-and-raised Ola and Abel Osundairo as "Nigerian brothers"

 

• Last year, Smollett served as a narrator and correspondent for an Epix documentary on lynching

 

• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel gets emotional on CNN: "I’m upset about what he said about the city and the way he used the city"

 

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