Marvin Gaye's Son Sues 'Empire' Creator Lee Daniels Charging Story for Series Stolen From Work
The son of legendary singer Marvin Gaye is planning to sue the creators of the Fox Network smash hit series "Empire," charging he registered a treatment for the show as far back as in 2010.
TMZ reports Marvin Gaye III claims he registered a show called "Diamond & Ballads" (aka "Those Sons of Riches!") with the Writers Guild of America back then that highlights a family in the music business: "a music based 'black' and 'hip' version of 'Dynasty' ... with a little 'Sopranos.'"
Reports are Gaye shopped the project around to various TV execs, further billing it as "loosely based on the lives of his legendary family and the Berry Gordy family."
Gaye now insists the people in the industry, with whom show co-creator Lee Daniels associates with, received emails about his work. He argues the "Precious" director unwittingly fessed up in 2014 after Empire's big takeoff, when he said, "I wanted to make a black 'Dynasty'" and added it was similar to "The Sopranos."
Gaye's lawyer now shares he plans to name Daniels, Fox and others as defendants. He previously succesfully sued singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over the song "Blurred Lines," which he argued was overly sampled from his father's music.
The pending legal action comes as the second suit faced by "Empire" creators in just the last several days. Earlier this week, a woman named Daniels in a $300 million suit where she alleges the Taraji P. Henson-played Cookie Lyon character is a ripoff of her life story.
Sophia Eggleston claims in her lawsuit she embodies the Cookie character in almost every important respect, including a penchant for wearing mink. Just like Cookie, she also claims she did time for putting a hit on someone.
Eggleston alleges she gave a copy of an autobiography to a screenwriter four years ago, and months later the screenwriter called her to say she was pitching the book to Daniels.
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