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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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Azealia Banks dropped by UK booking agency

Azealia Banks has apparently been dropped by her UK booking agency, Primary Talent International, as the fallout continues from her racist, expletive-filled verbal attack on Zayn Malik last week.

Banks’s name is no longer visible on Primary Talent’s roster, and an error message is displayed where her artist page used to be:

Azealia Banks 404 error message, Primary Talent International

IQ has contacted Primary Talent for confirmation that Banks’s contract has been terminated.

Rapper Banks, an African American, was last week axed from the line-up of London festival Rinse Born & Bred after calling ex-One Direction singer Malik, whose father is a Pakistani, a “hairy, curry-scented bitch” and “sand nigger who emulates white boys’ renditions of black malehood” as the two feuded over accusations Malik plagiarised the video for her single ‘Yung Rapunxel’ in his latest release, ‘Like I Would’.

She has also since been suspended from Twitter, and could be blocked from entering Britain in future (a Home Office spokesman said in response to her remarks that “coming to the UK is a privilege, and we expect those who come here to respect our shared values”).

Yesterday Banks posted the following apology on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFZ7VslH1QT/

Azealia Banks axed from festival over racist rant

Rapper Azealia Banks has been dropped from the line-up of a London festival after writing a series of racist and homophobic tweets directed at ex-One Direction singer Zayn Malik.

Banks called Malik, whose father is a Pakistani, a “hairy, curry-scented bitch” and “sand nigger who emulates white boys’ renditions of black malehood” as the two feuded over accusations Malik plagiarised the video for her single ‘Yung Rapunxel’ in his latest release, ‘Like I Would’.

Rinse Born & Bred Festival, promoted by London-based grime radio station Rinse FM, said in a tweet that the event is a “celebration of rave culture” committed to “inclusivity and equality”.

Banks was due to headline the festival, held in Haggerston Park in Hackney, on Sunday 5 June. No replacement has yet been announced.