ICM drops Roseanne Barr after Jarrett tweet

Booking agency ICM Partners has dropped Roseanne Barr, the American actress and comedienne, in response to a “disgraceful and unacceptable tweet” she sent about a former adviser to Barack Obama.

Barr (pictured), the star of long-running sitcom Roseanne, said on Twitter on Monday night that Valerie Jarrett, a black woman who served as a senior aide to the former president, looked like if the “Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes had a baby”. The tweet formed part of a bizarre rant about George Soros, the controversial Hungarian-American financier who is the subject of a number of far-right, antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Television network ABC cancelled Roseanne, which has been revived for 2018 after a 19-year hiatus, yesterday, and ICM soon followed suit.

“We are all greatly distressed by the disgraceful and unacceptable tweet from Roseanne Barr this morning,” said the agency in a note to employees, reports THR. “What she wrote is antithetical to our core values, both as individuals and as an agency.

“Consequently, we have notified her that we will not represent her. Effective immediately, Roseanne Barr is no longer a client.”

In 2016, rapper Azealia Banks was similarly dropped by her agency, Primary Talent, after sending a series of racist tweets.

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