After being criticized, the writer-director-producer takes to his blog to defend himself.
“I could not have imagined I’d be getting all these emails about Kim Kardashian. I HAVE SEEN THEM!! YOU HAVE BEEN HEARD!! …LOL,” Perry writes.
He continues to write, “Y’all gave me a new movie title, Tyler Perry’s ‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman Cause You Hired Kim Kardashian, Don’t Make Me Take Off My Earrings and Boycott Yo A**.’…LOL. Some of my ladies are upset. Ok, all jokes aside, can I have my say? Will you at least here [sic] me out?”
His explanation about wanting to specifically cast stars who can attract younger audiences to the film seems like a stretch, because the story involves a young Virgina girl e explains that the movie is about a young Virginia girl (Jurnee Smolett), who meets a man (played by Robbie Jones) who “challenges everything in her life from her marriage to her husband to her faith.”
Just the subject matter alone, one has to wonder if Perry has been keeping up with the gossip rags and news media cycle to see that Kim Kardashian is the last famous face he would want for such a production.
When one of his producers suggested her two months ago as a person that “young people are looking up to,” Perry was astonished to learn of her large Twitter following.
“She literally has millions of young people following her,” he writes. “I thought and still do think, that it would be very responsible of her to be a part of this film. To have the young people that look up to her, see her in a film that is about, what happens in life when you make the wrong choices.”
Granted, Kardashian’s role isn’t a lead, but in the wake of her 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries, perhaps Perry needs to reevaluate his checklist on what it means to be a role model.
