It’s like the old saying goes: You haven’t made it until someone tries to sue you. It was true for Seinfeld, and it’s happening to Empire, too. A woman named Sophia Eggleston filed a $300 million lawsuit against Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, the creators of Fox’s massively successful hip-hop drama, because she claims they stole her life story. The Detroit native, who wrote a memoir titled The Hidden Hand about her time as a “drug kingpin,” allegedly “traveled to L.A. to meet with screenwriter Rita Miller and gave Miller a copy of her book.”
Miller, Eggleston alleges, told her she was going to pitch the story to Daniels. That was in 2011; four years later, Empire premiered, and Taraji P. Henson’s Cookie “was similar in behavior, style of dress, and background.” The most damning evidence of something shady going on is that both women, fictional or otherwise, “share a taste for mink coats [and] both had a gay family member.”
Fox, Daniels, and Strong all declined to comment on the case, but Eggleston says, “The whole city’s been telling me Cookie is basically me. Any jury would rule for me.”
Especially when they hear her street name: Keebler Chips Deluxe Rainbow Cookie.
(Via Page Six)
