hat warning came when Daniels, once again, was asked about putting a Caucasian actress (Jude Demorest) at the center of the fictional girl group for his new music drama Star. When Daniels was asked the same question in December, as the show was launching, and he said it was because the country needed healing, his response raised eyebrows.

Speaking in front of a room of reporters Wednesday, Daniels said he had also faced that very question internally. "Why am I putting a white girl in the middle of this black environment with a sister who is half black with another singer who is an entitled, very rich black girl with a transgender," he said he asked himself. "Why am I doing that? Why am I doing that now?

"We're in a difficult time right now in America," he continued. "I foresaw where we would be right now. When I said 'Heal the nation,' I think it was about personal healing. Sometimes you're misquoted. It's about bringing these girls together and watching these girls come together as a family, as they aspire to their dreams. And though there is racism, I was not saying that there is no racism, that I don't acknowledge racism. Racism is very, very, very real. You're talking to somebody that has experienced it firsthand. I'm not going to let racism define me. That's all I'm going to say."

www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/lee-daniels-discusses-difficult-time-america-963597




He's only saying this because Star's ratings have gone down quite steadily.