Some super soapy drama has hit the entertainment world this week. Former Another World star Clayton Prince (ex-Reuben Lawrence) has filed a lawsuit against Empire producer Lee Daniels that alleges the premise for Fox's successful primetime dramas was actually his idea and that Daniels stole it.
Prince, who's legal name is Clayton Prince Tanksley, filed the suit in federal court on Friday, also naming Empire co-creator Danny Strong, Fox, and the Greater Philadelphia Film Office and its executive director, Sharon Pinkenson.
"This will be a David vs. Goliath kind of situation, but I want people to know what happened," Prince says of the lawsuit, which claims Daniels stole the concept for Empire from Prince after he pitched his show to Daniels at the Greater Philadelphia Film Office's 'Philly Pitch' in April 2008. "I want people to know the truth."
Prince's attorney, Mary Elizabeth Bogan, has known Prince for eleven years and says she was aware of his show, which he called Cream, years before Empire premiered.
"I'm very familiar with Clayton's work and when the Empire promo first came out, my original thought was, 'Clayton must have landed that deal. Good for him,'" Bogan says. "So I didn't even need to get the rest of the [evidence], but when I did . . . it proves that Empire is strikingly and compellingly substantially similar to Cream."
As for what gave Prince the idea for his project, he says that after appearing on The Cosby Show as Denise's "reggae-singing" boyfriend, musicians would give him their work, hoping he could break them into the music business.
"I also had friends in the music industry who would tell me stories, and I thought, 'This sounds like a soap opera,' " Prince recalls.
To read the full story, check out Philly.com.
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