(Image Source: Amazon)
BY LAUREN ZIMA
Now this is a story all about how … Will Smith might be a total jerk.
Most of the cast of ‘90s sitcom hit The Fresh Prince of Bel Air reunited last Thursday for a charity luncheon, but one actress was notably absent -- the matriarch. TMZ dug a little deeper to find out why -- and reports Janet Hubert, who played Aunt Viv on the show, quote, “hates” Smith.
KDVR spoke with TMZ’s Dax Holt.
DAX HOLT: “She said, ‘I will never ever do a reunion if it involves that a-hole Will Smith.’ She went on to just berate him, say that he’s an egomaniac and all these negative things. I guess he had talked about her a couple years ago to a radio station, said she didn’t like him, had a very sour personality and left the show in the middle of the run.”
Yet Hubert says Smith is the reason she left -- claiming he had her fired because she didn’t praise him enough. She was replaced by another actress, who played Aunt Viv until the show went off the air in 1996. But PopBytes says Hubert’s tale is far from fresh -- in fact, it stinks.
“The best she can do is say that as a 22-year-old rising star, he was a little arrogant and ambitious. The entire thing comes across as what would happen if Helen 'Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children?!' Lovejoy from The Simpsons wrote a tell-all. So I guess all in all, Smith won this round by a goddamn mile.”
Still, AllieIsWired takes Hubert’s side, citing a radio interview Smith gave in 1993 about her departure. In the interview, Smith said:
“‘She has basically gone from a quarter of a million dollars a year to nothing. She's mad now but she's been mad all along. She said once, |I've been in the business for 10 years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show.' No matter what, to her I'm just the AntiChrist.’”
And AllieIsWired says:
“Or maybe you’re just an a**hole Will Smith, maybe you’re just an a**hole.”
This isn’t the first time Hubert has slammed the actor -- in her 2009 memoir, she said he was arrogant and jealous of other people’s talent. TMZ reached out to Smith for comment -- he has not responded.
