Actor Sean Penn has filed a $10m defamation lawsuit against Empire co-creator and Oscar nominated writer/director Lee Daniels, whose films include Precious and The Butler.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday, stems from an interview Daniels gave to the Hollywood Reporter, in which he accused Penn of domestic violence while discussing Empire star Terrence Howard’s history of physically abusing women.

“[Terrence] ain’t done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn, and all of a sudden he’s some fuckin’ demon,” Daniels told the trade paper when asked about Howard’s legal troubles. “That’s a sign of the time, of race, of where we are right now in America.”

Howard recently admitted to assaulting his first wife Lori McCommas, while his second, Michelle Ghent, was granted two restraining orders against him. He also pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after a couple in a restaurant accused him of attacking them after the woman complained that he had cut in line.

Penn was married to Madonna from 1985 to 1989, and spent 33 days in jail in 1987 for assaulting a photographer. Though reports have alleged that he was violent towards the singer, Penn was never charged and the pair remain on good terms.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the first paragraph of Penn’s complaint, filed in New York states: “As a result of Penn’s status as a public figure, he has for years been the subject of scandalous, scurrilous, and baseless attacks. But Penn, like any citizen, has a right to defend himself and will no longer tolerate the reckless and malicious behaviour of others, who seek to aggrandize themselves or their projects at his expense. Accordingly, and because of Daniels’ defamatory statements, Penn brings this action for monetary relief, and to deter Daniels and others from their defamatory actions.”



In his complaint, Penn calls Daniels’s statements largely “egregious”, and finds fault with Daniels leaping to Howard’s defense to “further bolster and brand his show Empire (on the eve of the Emmy Awards, when the statements were made)”.

The lawsuit continues: “Penn (unlike Howard) has never been arrested, much less convicted, for domestic violence, as his ex-wives (including Madonna) would confirm and attest.”