| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) A lawsuit accuses Universal Studios of firing an assistant director of ``2 Fast 2 Furious'' because he is black.
The suit, filed Tuesday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said Frank Davis was fired because of his race and replaced with a white assistant director. Davis had been personally selected by the film's director, John Singleton, who is also black.
Universal said Davis was fired because of performance issues, but the commission said there was no evidence of problems.
``Our investigation determined that Davis was fired over the objection of the film's director,'' commission attorney Noelle Brennan said in a statement. ``Almost every witness we interviewed, including the director, stated that Davis' performance was never an issue.''
Susan Fleishman, a spokeswoman for Vivendi Universal Entertainment, said the company had no comment.
Davis' credits include ``Terminator 2: Judgment Day,'' ``Seven,'' ``Rising Sun,'' and ``Courage Under Fire.''