Ghostbusters star slams publisher over book deal for troll who ‘encouraged racist abuse’
Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones has attacked a big-budget book deal handed to the internet troll banned from Twitter for allegedly encouraging racist abuse against her.
Milo Yiannopoulos has seen his media profile rise thanks to attention-grabbing comments and support of Donald Trump, whom he refers to as ‘daddy’.
The controversial journalist has previously claimed he would ‘cure’ himself of being gay if he could, and describes trans people as “mentally ill gay men dressing up for attention”.
He was banned from Twitter last year after allegedly encouraging a wave of racist abuse directed at Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, while he took advantage of a university speech on his ‘Dangerous Faggot’ lecture tour to single out and bully a transgender student on-stage.
It was announced last week that Yiannopoulos has signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster imprint Threshold Editions to write a book, including a reported $250,000 advance.
Taking to Twitter, Jones rubbished Simon & Schuster’s statement that the Yiannopoulos’ views “do not reflect either a corporate viewpoint or the views of our employees”.
She wrote: “yea but you still help them spread their hate to even more people”.
The publisher had claimed: “We do not and never have condoned discrimination or hate speech in any form.
“At Simon & Schuster we have always published books by a wide range of authors with greatly varying, and frequently controversial opinions, and appealing to many different audiences of readers.
“While we are cognizant that many may disagree vehemently with the books we publish we note that the opinions expressed therein belong to our authors, and do not reflect either a corporate viewpoint or the views of our employees.”
Yiannopoulos said previously: “I met with top execs at Simon & Schuster earlier in the year [2016] and spent half an hour trying to shock them with lewd jokes and outrageous opinions.
“I thought they were going to have me escorted from the building – but instead they offered me a wheelbarrow full of money.”
