BJ Pascual responds to Denise Julia's statements

BJ Pascual has responded to Denise Julia's statements with his own set of screen shots "to set the record straight."

The renowned photographer took to X late Wednesday saying he is "sharing the full context in the hopes of bringing clarity and closure to the issue."

"I sincerely apologize for addressing this during the holiday season as I understand it's a time for celebration and togetherness. Thank you for your understanding and may we all move forward with positivity and growth," BJ wrote in a two-part tweet.

In what appears to be a prologue, BJ first wrote in a note that he appreciated Denise Julia's efforts, but said "some claims and portions of the images she shared on her IG Stories do not reflect the full context of what transpired."

According to BJ, his team "made every effort to adjust the budget down to 371K for the one-day shoot," which he said is below industry standards and a detail that was left off Denise's earlier clarification. 

He stands by what he said in the podcast, and made clear that he's not sharing the screen grabs to retaliate "but to provide transparency and accountability."

"I deeply value professionalism, fairness, and hard work of everyone in our industry, including my team," BJ said, while confirming Denise's earlier claims that he replied to her on Christmas Eve.

Then he started sharing screen grabs.

First highlighting the reply of his manager, Pearl Ascueta, about getting back to Denise's manager, John Vincent Salcedo, for his availability, BJ admitted his "packed schedule and some delays on my end." while saying "our team made every effort to accommodate her and her team." 

After reiterating what he earlier said in the podcast, that "this shoot was more of a passion project for me," the photographer went down to business and addressed the financial issue.

He highlighted some messages in the exchange, including a spreadsheet of what appears to be the costs for the shoot and an accompanying message from Pearl that said she's negotiated "with everyone and they've managed the lower their costs."

"BJ will only do 2 vignettes instead of 3 on the second day," Pearl's message read. 

In the accompanying commentary of the photographer, he wrote "we managed to lower the budget of 1.2M, which was already negotiable, as customary" and added "we even helped negotiate the cost down and eventually offered a discounted rate of 371K (next slide) for a one-day shoot."

According to BJ that's "well below industry standards and within their working budget of 800K" and "crucial detail that wasn't in her video statement."

In his next slide, he also shared a screengrab of what appears to be the breakdown of the costs.

Meanwhile, BJ addressed the cancellation of the shoot, sharing a screen grab of the conversation where John said he was on the phone with Denise "and we don't feel like we're set for tomorrow. Our hair stylist and glam cancelling is throwing us off," the message read.

When Pearl said the production designer is already setting up, Denise's manager replied saying "we should pause that. We don't have a glam set up for DJ at all."

BJ emphasized, "Their hesitation wasn't due to the budget (as Denise claimed in the video) but because the glam team had canceled on them. Even though we had managed to secure a hair/makeup artist for the next day, they still felt unprepared."

"According to JV, he was in contact with Denise while the situation was happening so it's confusing they are not attributing the cancellation to the budget," he added.

The screen grabs showed BJ's team being transparent about the cancellation fee, as well as informing them of having secured a hair/makeup artist.

BJ shared a few more screen grabs of their conversations, and said his team decided to cancel the shoot at 11.27pm or "approximately 6.5 hours before the scheduled call time." 

"We promptly informed everyone, including the suppliers," he said, adding "I personally covered the costs for the team who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure everything was in place for the shoot, and this was clearly communicated to them.

The photographer also addressed the claims of Denise's camp about not confirming the shoot schedule by sharing screen grabs that showed Denise's manager agreeing to a shoot on August 14, and writing below  "Additionally, in our personal message exchange, Denise was made aware of the shoot and reminded of the details needed from their end (styling and claim). Since she responded to my message in agreement, we assumed she was fully aware of the details at that time."

As his post-script, BJ said "I hope that sharing the full context, which is consistent with what I truthfully shared in the podcast, will help put this issue to rest." 

The whole fiasco between BJ and Denise began over the weekend, when BJ revealed his frustrating encounter with the "B.A.D.' hitmaker on a podcast with Killa Kush. 

In the podcast, Killa Kush also narrated her own frustrations with Denise.

Denise went on a social media break before responding to BJ on Christmas morning. Shortly after, her creative director also took to social media to clarify the podcast host's allegations of tardiness toward them.

— LA, GMA Integrated News