UPDATE! Well, well, well. It looks as if Gaborey Sidibe has weighed in on the never ending drama of Monique and her claims that she was offered the role of Cookie Lyons in ‘Empire’. Sidibe who stars in the hit show also played Precious in the movie Monique won an Oscar for. Gabourey took to Twitter to give her opinion on the situation. Last week, Oscar winner Mo’Nique’ claimed that Precious director Lee Daniels initially offered her the role of Cookie Lyon on Empire, but his plans were thwarted by Fox execs who said she was too “difficult” to work with. That Mo’Nique is difficult and “borderline disrespectful” was co-signed openly on social media by several media and entertainment industry execs who have worked with her, yet Mo’Nique has generated a lot of screen time saying that the industry and Daniels “blacklisted” her because she “knew her worth.” Henson, who is racking up record ratings as the breakout star of Empire in the role of Cookie Lyon, hasn’t said anything publicly about Mo’Nique’s claims. However, she did retweet Empire co-creator Danny Strong on her own Twitter timeline. Strong says Henson was always going to play Cookie, and in fact, in several interviews, Henson has said she initially wasn’t sure she wanted to play the role. Here’s Strong’s tweet, retweeted by Henson. And if that wasn’t clear enough, Strong confirms Mo’Nique was NEVER offered a role on Empire or in The Butler like she claimed.
