Terrence Howard is in trouble.
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The jury-trial-seeking breach of contract complaint filed today in L.A. Superior Court (read it here) against Howard and his loan-out company is a far-too-frequent Hollywood tale of a talent leaving an agent or manager behind and not handing over contractually obliged commissions; that detail certainly stands out. According to the lawsuit, the company helped play “a key role in the resurgence of Howard’s career”. He signed a seven-year contract for the show, and Authentic executives assert they are entitled to 10 per cent of his earnings for the duration of the contract, which will expire in 2020. But it says the actor still owes 10 percent of all of the money he made while under its umbrella, including that of Empire. Authentic wants a cut for the full term of this deal pursuant to promises as well as “custom, usage, and practice in the entertainment industry”.
In the documents, Authentic Talent claim they “effectively saved Howard’s job on “Empire” by convincing” executives at Imagine Entertainment “not to terminate Howard from the show”, though they don’t state when or why his role was at risk. “He has failed to do so despite having received millions of dollars from Empire and despite being in a position to receive millions more”.
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Though Howard ultimately fired the management company, the lawsuit refers to a September 2014 e-mail from the actor, wherein he said through a representative that Authentic “will however be paid until the end of Terrence’s present contract with ‘Empire'”. Howard claimed in 2013 that he was “pushed out” of the franchise by Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr for financial gain – it was reported that Howard’s salary for the first Iron Man was the highest of the entire cast.
