Veteran comedians Mo’Nique and D.L. Hughley are at odds.
During her performance in Detroit over the weekend at the Fox Theatre, the Academy Award-winning actress accused the Kings of Comedy star of removing her as a headliner for the show.
“Y’all don’t understand the fight had to go through to stand in front of y’all tonight,” the 54-year-old told the crowd, a video shot at the 105.9 KISS-FM The Comedy Explosion shows. The “Precious” star claimed Hughley refused to perform if she remained the headliner.
“That’s what the [expletive] contract says,” she continued. “’Mo’Nique is to be the last [expletive] person on the [expletive] stage. She is the headliner. That’s what I signed the [contract for].”
It wasn’t long before Hughley caught wind of Mo’Nique’s rant and took to his Instagram account, where he denied the claims, stating, “All you have to do is check the order of names on the ticket stub from last night and you’ll see who’s confused.”
Hughley wrote that “against my better judgment, over the objections of my team and 4 other occasions where I said NO, I decided to take a chance and work with Monique,” before seemingly suggesting that Mo’Nique was at fault in the feuds she’s had with notable figures including Oprah Winfrey and Steve Harvey.
“At some point it can’t be everyone else, IT’S YOU!!” the 59-year-old continued. “Lesson learned. I didn’t have anything personal against Monique… People paid a lot of money to laugh, not hear about your contract.”
A back-and-forth soon ensued, with Mo’Nique telling Hughley to “Either show your contract or be quiet.” She continued, “You’re the reason why I fight for my people like I do. Anytime you opened for the kings of comedy and I was the headliner for the queens of comedy, and you think you should close the show over me, is a prime example of the bias that Black women have to deal with in this business.”
Hughley ultimately did provide documentation, none of which showed the actress as a headliner. “After this… I don’t want hear no mo’ about this,” he wrote. However, Mo’Nique soon followed up with her own documentation seemingly confirming her headliner slot, including a photo of what appeared to be a signed Performance Agreement, stating her as “the headliner of the show and the closing talent for the show.”
“If you notice mine has signatures and D.L. does not,” she wrote. “What type of iron clad agreement doesn’t have the signatures of the participants involved?”
Still, Hughley pushed back, writing, “MAAAAAN… HICK’S MEDIA INC??
HOLD UP!! THAT’S YOU!!! YOU REALLLY SHOWING EVERYONE A CONTRACT YOU SUBMITTED FROM YOUR OWN COMPANY.” He added,” I SMELL BULLSH-T AND I WOULDN’T PICK IT UP WITH THE OLD ASS BIRTH CERTIFICATE PAPER IT WAS WRITTEN ON!! “
By now, fans appeared to be drained, many of whom called for the two to agree to never work together again, including one person who wrote, “Don’t y’all got card games to play and bbq to eat? Enjoy the holidays damn.” Another person commented, “We don’t care no more … talk to y’all lawyers not us.”
