Actress Mo’Nique, winner of an Academy Award, has filed a lawsuit against CBS and Paramount Pictures, claiming that she is owed unpaid royalties totaling millions of dollars from her UPN sitcom “The Parkers.” The case was filed on Mo’Nique’s behalf.
The complaint, which was submitted to the Los Angeles Superior Court, asserts that Mo’Nique is entitled to 2.5% of the total receipts from the series, which she believes to be somewhere around $20 million. Despite this, she claims that she has only gotten a small portion of the aforementioned sum.
The lawsuit claims that CBS and Paramount “artificially depressed” the profitability of the show in order to “retain millions that would otherwise be contractually due” to Mo’Nique. This is alleged to have been done in order to “retain millions that would otherwise be contractually due.” In addition, the lawsuit asserts that the defendants have “engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination” against Mo’Nique, one of the ways in which this is alleged to have occurred is through their refusal to provide her an appropriate amount of money for her labor.
Mo’Nique is requesting compensation for losses in excess of ten million dollars. A statement that she is entitled to the total amount of royalties that are owing to her is another thing she is trying to get from this.
Mo’Nique has issued a statement in which she claims that she is “tired of being taken advantage of” and that she is “standing up for what is right.”
She stated, “I have put in a lot of hard work, and I should be owed millions of dollars.” “CBS and Paramount will not be able to get away with this,” you can count on me to say.
The network and the studio have not provided a response to the case as of yet.
Mo’Nique is no stranger to the spotlight that comes with controversy. In 2019, she filed a discrimination lawsuit against Netflix after the streaming service made her an offer for a comedy special that was only half of what it has offered to other comedians of her stature. The offer was for $500,000 dollars. After some time, a settlement was reached in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit that Mo’Nique has filed against CBS and Paramount is the most recent in a string of lawsuits that have been lodged against Hollywood studios by actresses and other creative professionals who say that they have been underpaid or discriminated against. These lawsuits argue that Hollywood studios have engaged in wage discrimination or other unlawful employment practices. These lawsuits have increased awareness of the issue of pay equity in Hollywood and have led to some changes, such as the introduction of the Inclusion Rider, which enables actors and other creative professionals to demand that their projects have a certain percentage of women and people of color in key roles. Another change that has resulted from these lawsuits is the introduction of the Gender Pay Gap Report, which was published in 2017.
Mo’Nique has filed a lawsuit, although it is not yet certain whether or not she will prevail. On the other hand, it is quite evident that she is not going to give up without a struggle.