Terrence Howard Sues CAA Over ‘Empire’ Salary: ‘Sooner or Later You’ve Got to Stand Up’
variety.comPat Saperstein Deputy Editor “Empire” star Terrence Howard is suing CAA for breach of fiduciary duty, saying the talent agency allegedly asked him to take a lower salary for the popular show.
He outlined his claims at a Friday press conference. Howard played music mogul Lucious Lyon for six seasons of the Fox drama, produced by Imagine Entertainment and what was then 20th Century Fox TV.
He claims that because CAA also represented the producers of “Empire” in a package deal that was lucrative for the agency. As such, Howard’s legal strategy asserts, the agency did not act in his best interest by pushing for a higher salary because it had a profit participation stake through its package, so CAA had an interest in maximizing the total profit that 20th TV realized on the series.
Since 2020, the practice of talent agencies receiving packaging fees on TV series was essentially banned after the Writers Guild of America waged a nearly two-year battle against the Hollywood’s largest agencies to reform the decades-old practice.
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