Amid the fallout from Ed Sheeran removing Macklemore from his tour, Chelsea Handler is denying that she fired an opener over her “Free Palestine” support.
Following comic Salma Hindy‘s claim that the Grammy nominee tried “to get rid of me” for speaking up about Palestinians, Handler denied the accusation on social media, insisting she “never fired” Hindy.
“Ah, that’s actually not what happened,” commented on Hindy’s Instagram video. “You quit opening for me, and I have the emails from your agents. Your agent is full of it. I would never fire someone for disagreeing with me politically on this issue.”
Handler added, “And I never fired her. Period. Not on this issue.”
Additionally, Handler shared screenshots of her communications with Hindy, which appear to show her dropping out of a show that she claimed to have been canceled without her knowledge. It also shows Handler approving her reimbursement for travel that Hindy claimed her team refused to pay.
On Wednesday, Hindy posted the video claiming, “I lost my position as Chelsea Handler’s opener after I spoke to her about Palestine.”
The Canadian-Egyptian standup comedian said she opened for Handler on two tours since 2022, and they “generally had a very loving, warm sisterly relationship.” But when Hindy asked “if she wanted to speak about the Palestine-Isreal thing” in the wake of her friends Sarah Silverman and Amy Schumer’s “disgustingly racist, dehumanizing” posts about Palestinians, she claimed Handler ignored her and removed her from three shows.
Hindy said that Handler later canceled two shows last minute due to severe weather, without notifying her. And although she said Handler’s team bought her a plane ticket back to New York City, she claimed they refused to reimburse her.
The comedian alleged that her manager told her, “Chelsea Handler is trying to get rid of [Hindy] because of the Palestine thing, but she doesn’t want to say it so that she doesn’t incriminate herself.”
Handler’s response comes after Ed Sheeran dropped Macklemore from his tour, amid pressure from Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft and other venues over the “Hind’s Hall” singer’s “Free Palestine” peach at recent shows on Sheeran’s Loop Tour.
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