Samuel Nii Odoi Mensah, President of the Ghana Actors
Guild (GAG), has started an open and rather nasty fight with Delores ‘Delay’
Frimpong Manso over her upcoming auditions to find an actress to play lead role
in the phase three of her ‘Afia Schwarzenegger’ television series.
After some two weeks of radio and television adverts in
search of an actress to play the lead role, Nii Odoi Mensah last Thursday said
on Peace FM that Delay has no right to hold auditions to search for an actress
to play the role because she is neither a member of the Ghana Actors Guild nor
the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG).
He accused Delay of fraudulently charging for her audition forms and said she was only exploiting the public.
In what appeared to
be a rather sexiest statement, the GAG president noted: “This time, she will
not get it easy. If she thinks she knows big men and so she can find her way
through, we would also tell her that we are the Ghana Actors Guild. We have
been quiet for some time now because we want sleeping dogs to lie but this time
if you want to touch us, we would touch you because it is becoming too much…You
see, when people come to small limelight, then they want to use it against
others. It is not right. It is not right at all.” Samuel Nii Odoi Mensah But
Delay, sounding very confident, told NEWS-ONE she would go ahead with her
auditions and dared Nii Odoi Mensah to go ahead with his threats.
“There is no law in Ghana that states I must be a member
of the Ghana Actors Guild or FIPAG before I hold auditions to pick actresses
for a TV series for which I write the script, direct the production, select the
cast, pay for airtime, pay the cast and crew and even decide which TV station I
air it on… “Mr. Odoi Mensah is an adult and should know that when he says I
think I know big men so I can have my way through, it is an insult not only to
me, but to the female members of his Actors Guild as well. Who said a woman
must know big men before she becomes a success story? If that is his mentality,
I wonder why he thinks I must belong to his group… “In any case, the Ghana
Actors Guild is not a statutory body that gives license to actors or actresses.
He can ask his members not to come for my auditions but
he cannot ban any Ghanaian from acting for my series and I wonder how to select
a cast without holding auditions. So you see? Instead of keeping quiet and pretending
he is focusing on the welfare of his members so we continue to respect him, he
is embarrassing himself with a battle he cannot win; a battle that at the end
of the day, would push us all to test the laws of Ghana on whether or not the
Actors Guild is a statutory body established by a legislative instrument or a
parliamentary act.
Any group of actresses can easily come together tomorrow
morning to form another group. So let him secretly go for his interlocutory
injunction to stop us. Then we take it from there and see what the law says
about freedoms of association. I’m not a film producer to belong to FIPAG,”
Delay explained. On the question of selling the audition forms, Delay said it
was normal practice: “Don’t mind him. Truth is, some people are only envious of
successful young people who are not under them and do not come begging them for
anything. Ask all those who go for pageants and auditions if they do not pay
for the forms.
I am renting the entire conference room of the Errata
Hotel, providing food, renting audio visual equipment and paying the operating
crew, paying cost of radio and television adverts, paying consultants and you
say I should make the forms free because Odoi Mensah says so? Things of value
don’t come cheap. I am not a fraud. He should go and fight those who have
nothing to show yet hold auditions. I have a production to show and he should
be congratulating and supporting me rather than hating and insulting on radio.”
She said the auditions for
a new ‘Afia’ will be held on Saturday August 31, at the Erata Hotel, and
whoever emerges the ideal candidate would take over from Nana Hemaa….
Paulina says: TV presenter/producer/entrepreneur Delores Frimpong Manso
aka Delay is one of those big Accra girls you just have to admire –no? You have
to admire her ability to bounce back after that Wanlov hullabaloo –no?
Not the usual Ghana Rising material, she is noooo socialite,
but I was searching for the latest images of TV persona Nana Aba, yes I know
she is not the usual Ghana Rising subject either but I’ve been seeing some
really lovely photos of her lately and stumbled upon Delay’s Facebook page, read
the above piece concerning her looking for another, another, another ‘Afia
Schwarzenegger’ and just had to share. Plus said piece talks about a tiff with Samuel
Nii Odoi Mensah, President of the Ghana Actors Guild (GAG) who I find to be an
elegant man –and goodness knows we need all the elegant people we can find in
Ghana…and gives as an insight into the inner working of Ghana’s big boy club
mentality.. You have to admire Delay for having the stomach for the poli-tricks
that is Ghana TV.
I digress small….. but did I ever tell about a friend of
a friend of a friend of a friend who went back home under another regime ---sorry
under another government with more sika than I care to think about to start his own Television
station and was asked to give that ‘government’ a ridiculous percentage of his business mafia styleeee???
Well he disappeared back to where he came from and that was that…
So I kind of
know a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes of Ghana TV and it’s not
for the fainthearted. But I agree somewhat with Delay and believe that a virtuous
woman with sika and talent can pay for her own show/production/airtime with out
some ‘big bellied satellite dish head big man’ behind you etc etc but the truth
is you also need to be pretty connected in Ghana –and that’s when it get very ‘spiritual-underground-games’…and
I think that’s what Samuel Nii Odoi Mensah, President of the Ghana Actors Guild
(GAG) is talking about. The sad truth is no industry in Ghana that has a level
playing field and if you a woman who wants to make it without the big boys –you
need God, your own money and the ‘Blood of Jesus’….
Anyway, could you be the next ‘Afia Schwarzenegger’? No
nor could I. But if you are the next ‘Afia Schwarzenegger’ make sure you are at
Erata Hotel on the 31st August 2013. To keep up with all of Delay’s
daily happenings visit her official Facebook page via: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Delay/126984400748343
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