If Donna West wasn’t mad before, she is now. Last week, she told Fort Worth police that someone threatened to kill her on Facebook.
Our Feb. 18 profile of West (“Accusations of a Mad Black Woman”) analyzed her claims that movie mogul Tyler Perry ripped off her script Fantasy of a Black Woman about 10 years ago and created a similar variation, which turned out to be his career-making Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
West has been sharing the Weekly story on social media and reiterating her claims of copyright infringement. Another Facebooker from North Carolina has been critical of her posts and wrote a comment that could be interpreted in different ways.
“He the connection. $20,000. Tyler Perry please call,” Mary Richet wrote in a comment that included her personal phone number.
West’s interpretation? The woman was asking Perry to pay her $20,000 to perform a hit on West.
“She posted her phone number and said, ‘Please call,’” West told us. “Is that not crazy? My family can’t take any chances on that.”
West filed a report with Fort Worth police last week. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote an article under the headline: “Woman says she’s being harassed, threatened by Tyler Perry fan.”
We contacted Richet to ask if she was threatening to kill West.
Richet disputed that interpretation.
West had turned down a $200,000 settlement offer from Lionsgate after she sued Perry in 2008. Richet was making a joke, she said, by offering to write a play for Perry for $20,000 – or a tenth of the settlement offer.
“I believe [West] when she says that [Perry] stole her material because he has a history,” Richet said.
However, Richet said, she wasn’t threatening anyone, and West appears to be suffering anxiety related to the case.
“I think that [lawsuit] drove her insane,” Richet said. “She can’t let it go.”
Police have not contacted Richet, she said.
