Gabrielle Union Claims Her Agent Was Threatened By NBC

Gabrielle Union claims that her agent was threatened by NBC in the midst of her discrimination suit against the network.

According to Union, “inflammatory things or things that are not advantageous to me,” were supplied to NBC chairman Paul Telegdy in the midst of the actress’ discrimination complaint against the network and the show “America’s Got Talent,” which let her go after only one year.

Union, 47, then claims Telegdy used this information “to shoot down my claims. He then threatens my agent. ‘Gabrielle better watch who she calls a racist’ in the middle of an investigation about racism and discrimination. This is what’s happening from the top of the company,” she told Trevor Noah on “The Daily Social Distancing Show” on Tuesday.

Union also said there was trouble from the very first day when she discovered fellow judge (and boss) Simon Cowell openly smoking indoors.

“When your boss, the person who has ability to determine who gets opportunities, believes law doesn’t apply to him,” she said, “and he does it (smoking) in full view of NBC and Fremantle and Syco. And no one cares he’s exposing employees to secondhand smoke — that’s day one, that’s within the first hour — what message do you think that sends to anyone that has an issue with the very real racism and lack of accountability?”

She said that the answer is not working around “bad apples as opposed to addressing and making those bad apples accountable.”

“In front of and behind the camera, there has to be an increase in representation from across the board, from the top to the bottom — who gets to make the decisions of which projects to green light, who is a part of those development process, who gets to determine budgets,” Union added.

The Omaha-born star also discussed her current mental state which she described as “just one big anxiety attack.”

“The nonstop onslaught of trauma… I don’t even know if anxiety is a big enough word,” Union revealed. “It feels like terror in my body. You try to figure out how best you can cope and then help.”

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