Will Smith and Jada’s Entertainment Company Lay Off Half of Staff Due to Strikes
Jada and Will recently said they are “together in the way that works for us”.
Jan. 8 2024, Published 10:30 a.m. ET
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith hoped to sell their entertainment company Westbrook for close to $1 billion — months before the actor slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars — but business has slowed in the months following the incident and they were forced to lay off staff due to the actor and writer strikes, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to a bombshell report from Semafor, before the 2021 incident, Will and Jada were in talks to sell Westbrook to a company called Candle Media.
Candle Media purchased Reese Witherspoon’s entertainment company Hello Sunshine for $1 billion in 2021.
The company and its partners valued Westbrook — which included Will Smith’s brand and Jada’s uber-successful Red Table Talk show on Facebook — at $600 million, far below the $1 billion the couple believed it to be worth.
The deal fell apart, according to Semfaor.
Westbrook employed about 100 people and had an office in Calabasas. In the months after the deal fell apart, the company was doing extremely well with the TV show Bel-Air, the Oscar-nominated King Richard, and a “variety of series for Disney+, Apple TV, Snapchat, Netflix and Hulu.”
The report said Westbrook was on track to generate $170 million in 2022.
Flash forward to March 2022, Smith jumped on stage to confront Rock after the comedian made a joke about his wife. The incident caused immediate backlash.
Sources told Semafor that Westbrook, “has struggled to land major deals with the streamers and other entertainment giants, forcing it to make steep cuts.”
The report said Westbrook’s revenue dropped last year to $100 million and the company laid off half of the staff. A rep for Westbrook said the layoffs were due to the writer and actor's strike.
Jada revealed that they separated in 2016, but kept it under wraps for years until her book tour.
In April 2023, Red Table Talk was canceled by Meta after Facebook decided to shut down its Facebook Watch original programs.
At the time, the producers said they were in talks to take the show to another company but that has yet to materialize. A spokesperson for Westbrook told Semafor that the producers are still having conversations with distributors and the company has 2 active offers.
Never Miss an
Daily updates from the heart of Hollywood, right to your inbox
By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you’re agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
The pair are reportedly living together in renewed romantic bliss, but no one is allegedly buying it.
A rep for Westbrook denied the claims the company was struggling to land deals.
We're told Will and Jada's company has active deals with Columbia/Sony, Amazon, Netflix, Universal, Peacock, Paramount, and Disney+. The rep said no deals were canceled in 2023.
