News April 14, 2022
Thandiwe Newton Denies Exiting ‘Magic Mike’ Over Fight with Channing Tatum About Will Smith Oscars Slap!
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Thandiwe Newton is responding to a rumor that she was fired from “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” because she got into a fight with co-star Channing Tatum about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
On Wednesday, outlets including People and The Hollywood Reporter said Newton is being replaced by Salma Hayek in the third installment of the “Magic Mike” trilogy because of “family matters.”
“Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ to deal with family matters,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement.
However, that same day, The Sun ran a story that claimed Newton and Tatum got into a heated argument on set that escalated to “astonishing” and “unimaginably vicious” levels about Will Smith’s Oscars slap.
“They fell out over the debacle at the Oscars. I was on set. I watched her and watched him. They were in and out of the house where we were filming having this confrontation,” an alleged crew member said about the reported fight, which they say happened 11 days into filming.
The story also claimed that Tatum stormed off the set following the alleged war of words.
“It was a tense exchange of words, but suddenly it escalated — Channing got into this car and he disappeared,” the alleged insider said. “People looked at each other and thought, ‘Wait, we’re supposed to be filming.’”
“After the row, [Channing] just went, ‘I am not working with her anymore.’ Him being a producer, it’s his movie, so she’s off the movie,” the alleged source continued, adding, “She’s gone. Everything we’ve shot for the last 11 days has to be reshot with a new cast member.”
The alleged crew member also claimed director Steven Soderbergh “didn’t take a side.”
However, this week, a spokesperson for Newton told MailOnline, “This report is completely inaccurate.”
In February, our hosts discussed Thandiwe’s controversial apology to darker-skinned actresses. Watch that clip, below:
