Terrence Howard’s Ex-Agents Label His Claims That He Was Underpaid On ‘Empire’ Due To Their Racist Bias & Failure To Properly Advocate For Him As ‘Utterly Meritless’

Terrence Howard’s Ex-Agents Label His Claims That He Was Underpaid On ‘Empire’ Due To Their Racist Bias & Failure To Properly Advocate For Him As ‘Utterly Meritless’

It’s 2024 and Black entertainers are still fighting for fair treatment and equal pay.

As previously reported, In December, Terrence Howard filed a lawsuit against his former agency CAA – Creative Artists Agency LLC – for an alleged conflict of interest in the company’s handling of his “Empire” salary. According to Terrence Howard, CAA failed to properly advocate for him during his time on the FOX musical drama because the agency also represented the series’ co-creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, and its production company, Imagine Entertainment.

In addition, the entertainer alleged that CAA gave him false information about the salaries of his (white) counterparts in order to keep his rate lower than what it should have been. His lawsuit reportedly stated,

“Not only did it become abundantly clear that his agents led him on a path to rely on information that was misleading, he discovered that this was the result of the fact that CAA was not acting in his best interest, but in the in the interest of their own financial benefit as well as the interest of the Production Companies and the producers, Daniels and Strong,”

Terrence Howard

CAA has officially entered the conversation, and the agency is singing a different tune. According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline, the company has called Terrence Howard’s allegations “utterly meritless.” In a motion requesting that Howard’s suit be tossed out, CAA argued,

“Howard filed his Complaint … asserting claims for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty premised on CAA’s alleged role as a “packaging agent” on the television show Empire in December 2023—over nine years after Howard admits that CAA explicitly told him it was acting as the show’s packaging agent, seven years after Howard admits he suspected the alleged injury of which he now complains (i.e., that he was not paid enough), and more than four years after the highly publicized Writers Guild of America’s packaging lawsuit was filed against CAA (and other agencies), which Howard quotes in his Complaint.”

CAA added,

“Howard’s claims are utterly meritless.”

No word just yet on the judge’s decision.

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