Lee Daniels is facing yet another lawsuit from someone who claims that Empire was their idea first. According to reports, Marvin Gaye’s son, Marvin Gaye III, is the latest person to say that Daniels stole his idea.
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Gaye III claims that he registered a treatment for a show about an African-American family in the music industry to the Writers Guild of America in 2010. He reportedly pitched the show to different television executives, some who had ties to Lee Daniels. He deemed the series as a mix of Dynasty and The Sopranos, titling it Diamonds & Ballads and basing it on the lives of his family as well as Berry Gordy’s family. The son of the Motown legend feels that Daniels unknowingly confessed to stealing his idea when he said he wanted to make a “black Dynasty” after Empire became a hit series.
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Gaye III’s lawyer plans to take legal action against FOX, Lee Daniels and others involved.
Daniels has been having lawsuits thrown at him from all angles. Most recently, a Michigan woman claimed that she is the real Cookie Lyon and that the show’s creators stole the story line for an autobiography she pitched in 2011. The woman, Sophia Eggleston, is suing Empire creators for $300 million.