Hollywood director Tyler Perry has offered former Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens a job working on the hit OWN television show The Haves and the Have Nots after being publicly shamed for working at Trader Joe’s.
In a tweet Tuesday, Perry extended a job offer to Owens, while praising the actor’s work ethic in between roles. “#GeoffreyOwens I’m about to start shootings OWN’s number one drama next week! Come join us!!!,” Perry urged.” “I have so much respect for people who hustle between gigs. The measure of a true artist.”
Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America Tuesday, Owens expressed his appreciation for the outpour of support and stressed the importance of hard work. “Every job is worthwhile and valuable,” the former Cosby Show actor told host Robin Roberts. “There is no job that’s better than another,” he added. “It may pay better, it may have better benefits, it may look better on paper. But it’s not better. Every job is worthwhile.”
Two women reportedly snapped photos of the 57-year-old as he worked the cash register at Trader Joe’s in Clifton, New Jersey, and were later published by Fox News and the Daily Mail. “It was a shock to see him working there and looking the way he did. It made me feel really bad. I was like, ‘Wow, all those years of doing the show and you ended up as a cashier,” one of the women told the British tabloid. “Other fans would be surprised for sure as well.”
Breitbart News’ John Nolte criticized the various media outlets for framing Owens’ job at Trader Joe’s in the “most humiliating way possible.”
“Honestly, shame on everyone here, except of course Geoffrey Owens, who (as far as I know) has never gone the route of many actors and former actors — never disgraced himself in the media, never gotten into trouble with the law,” Nolte wrote. “All this man is doing, in-between acting jobs, is making an honest living, minding his own business, and not losing his cool over a couple of terrible women dining off the fact he committed the sin of getting older.”
Owens is best known for playing Elvin Tiabideaux, the husband of Bill Cosby’s eldest daughter, on the Cosby Show between 1985 and 1992.
Due to all the attention Owens now receives, the actor has left his job at the health food chain.
After the photos went viral, former NFL player and actor Terry Crew applauded Owens for working as a cashier. “I swept floors AFTER the @NFL. If need be, I’d do it again. Good honest work is nothing to be ashamed of,” Crews wrote.
Everybody Hates Raymond actress Patricia Heaton said Owens situation is par for the course when in between acting roles, as many in Hollywood are. “I had been a working actor for years. Jobs stopped, as they do,” said Heaton. “I worked in retail. At a flower shop. I passed out flyers. It’s about the work. Work gives you pride and purpose. Your visibility as an actor never goes away. But the money sure does.”
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