One of the early contenders for a major Oscar campaign this year is a little film called Precious. Precious debuted at Sundance to glowing reviews, and just showed at the Toronto Film Festival, once again to rapturous praise. It’s based on the novel Push, by Sapphire, and the film is produced by two of the heaviest hitters out there, Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey. Oprah will be promoting Precious heavily, I think. She’s already had Mariah Carey on her show – that was the episode where Mariah dropped the “motherf-cker” bomb live.

According to IMBD, the film is about: “Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect.” Precious is played by Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe, with Mariah Carey and Mo’Nique in the supporting roles. All three of those actresses have been pegged for Oscar nominations already – with many critics promoting Mo’Nique as the film’s best chance for an Oscar win. Unfortunately, Mo’Nique doesn’t want to do the extensive publicity rounds involved in a serious Oscar campaign – at least, not without getting paid:

Breakout star Mo’Nique isn’t considered that “precious” by executives at Lionsgate, which produced her forthcoming film. In fact, insiders are saying the 41-year-old comedian’s bad attitude and shameless demands for money may jeopardize her chance for Oscar glory – all this before the highly anticipated movie opens on Nov. 6.

The star was MIA Saturday night at the New York Film Festival premiere of the buzzworthy flick “Precious.” She also allegedly ditched her promotional duties during the Toronto Film Festival when she was denied a $100,000 appearance fee.

“That money didn’t even include hair and makeup costs. She also demanded that her glam squad fly first class,” sniped an incredulous industry source. “Apparently, she’s ignorant as to how the Hollywood system works.”

According to our snitch, exasperated studio chiefs suggested that executive producer Oprah Winfrey get involved to deflate Mo’Nique’s substantial ego, but even O couldn’t stop the actress from seeing green.

“Mo’Nique said she signed on to do this film for a small amount of money. She said she didn’t care about ‘no Oscar’ – all that mattered was ‘those Benjamins!’ Because Oprah and Tyler Perry are backing the film, she feels as though there should be a budget to pay for her promotional duties,” the source explains.

But the star’s attitude is starting to work against her. Winfrey and Tyler have reportedly instructed Lionsgate to put their promotional machine behind fellow stars Mariah Carey and Gabby Sidibe for the Oscar race. Those two are adept at playing the game; both turned up in New York and Toronto to push the film for free (although Carey, left, was 30 minutes late to Saturday’s Alice Tully Hall premiere and entered to boos from the audience in response to her tardiness).

“When people say, ‘You care more about money than winning an Oscar,’ well, what does an Oscar mean? An Oscar means more work when you win it, and that means more money!” retorts Mo’Nique in response to the allegations. “I couldn’t eat that Oscar. Everybody needs money, baby. That’s how we survive, right?”

Reps for Winfrey, Tyler and Lionsgate declined to comment, but the film’s director, Lee Daniels, was quick to say, “Mo’Nique is not a diva. She puts her soul into whatever she does. I love her very much.”

He does add, however, that “doing the press is hard for her because she’s in the moment.”

[From Gatecrasher]

Well, I can see both sides to this argument – somebody should be paying for Mo’Nique to make some appearances because there is a lot of money floating around for this extensive Oscar campaign – and it seems like the producers are holding out on Mo’Nique just because she’s not, say, Beyonce. That being said, Mo’Nique should totally tread lightly – pissing off Oprah and Tyler Perry won’t get her anywhere. And it does sound like she has absolutely no idea how Hollywood and/or a major Oscar campaign works. Maybe instead of sniping at each other in the press, someone could sit down and really explain this stuff to Mo’Nique. Something along the lines of “Seriously, Kate Winslet didn’t even get the sh-t you’re asking for. Grow up.”