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CAA won’t have to face a lawsuit from Terrence Howard accusing the agency of botching negotiations for his contract on Empire, a court has ruled.
Howard in 2023 sued CAA, alleging his agents had a conflict of interest when they convinced him into taking below-market salaries for his six-season run starring in the series. The sweeping lawsuit targeted packaging fees, a lucrative commission paid to agencies for bundling key creative elements — like writers, directors and actors — into a single project.
Howard’s relationship with CAA started to sour in 2018, when it pushed to renegotiate the actor’s contract for Empire, one of the most-watched shows on Fox during its run in which he played the lead character Lucious Lyon. His concerns weren’t limited to his per-episode salary. He wanted profit participation, perks and promotional opportunities, among other things, along the lines of a Kevin Spacey for House of Cards or Jon Hamm for Mad Men, according to court documents. Fox rebuffed the ask, declining to reopen his deal.
Those talks broke down again a year later after Howard asked to up his episodic fee from $325,000 to $750,000. Around this time, he was growing increasingly frustrated with CAA’s handling of his deal. He alleged in the lawsuit that his agents didn’t tell him of key developments that undermined his leverage or that CAA also represented series co-creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong and production company Imagine Entertainment.
