Jussie Smollett’s career over despite appeal; he ‘burned bridges’: expert

foxnews.com:

Jussie Smollett's Hollywood career is likely over, even though the actor is attempting to appeal his conviction. The outcome of Smollett's legal battle won't be able to fix the "reputation problems" the 2019 hate crime hoax created for the actor, according to a PR expert who spoke to Fox News Digital.

A jury found Smollett guilty of five charges of disorderly conduct during a nearly two-week trial in 2021. Smollett, who is Black and gay, reported to Chicago police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks in January 2019.The manhunt for the attackers soon turned into an investigation of Smollett and his arrest on charges that he’d orchestrated the attack and lied to police about it.

Despite Smollett's decision to appeal the verdict and clear his name, brand experts explained to Fox News Digital that the outcome will likely be "inconsequential" to his Hollywood career. "What happens with the Smollett appeal is relatively inconsequential to Smollett's career, and it's not a surprise if he doesn't understand that.

A retrial and a different verdict can't undo the reputation problems he created for himself," Howard Breuer said. "Everything Smollett has done and continues to do reinforces that he is, as Judge [James] Linn has said, ‘profoundly arrogant,’ ‘selfish’ and ‘narcissistic.’ Not the type producers want to work with." "If Jussie feels his appeal is somehow going to stave off a bloodbath for concocting what many have seen as one of the biggest scams in American legal history, he should rethink things," Eric Schiffer, a reputation management consultant, told Fox News Digital.