"Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones is lending her voice to a chorus of critics upset that Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos has signed a book deal with a Simon & Schuster imprint.
In a tweet Monday, Jones, who last year faced a torrent of racist and sexist abuse from Yiannopoulos that ended up getting him permanently banned from Twitter, took aim at the publishing house for helping its authors "spread their hate."
Simon & Schuster had earlier defended the acquisition of the book by saying it has never “condoned discrimination or hate speech in any form.”
"At Simon & Schuster we have always published books by a wide range of authors with greatly varying, and frequently controversial opinions, and appealing to many different audiences of readers,” the publisher said in a statement. "While we are cognizant that many may disagree vehemently with the books we publish we note that the opinions expressed therein belong to our authors, and do not reflect either a corporate viewpoint or the views of our employees."
Yiannopoulos, who last year solicited donations exclusively for “white men in support of their post-secondary education” only to sit on the money, is getting an advance of $250,000 for his forthcoming book, “Dangerous,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first broke the story. The book will be published on March 14 by Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
In response, some critics have threatened to boycott all Simon & Schuster books.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article referred to Milo Yiannopoulos as a "white nationalist.” Instead, he has called himself a "chronicler of, and occasional fellow traveller with the alt-right," which espouses white nationalist views.