This is disturbing to me. I'm especially let down by Lee Daniels' deferring to others not to hire someone who helped him get more and better opportunities. I guess he had to look out for himself or her, so it's best that one of them have a career instead of neither. He essentially validated her complaint with this statement:

"I consider her a friend," he added. "However, the consensus among the creative teams and powers thus far were to go another way with these roles."