Years and years after Jussie Smollett claimed to be the victim of a MAGA hate crime on the cold streets of Chicago, the whole matter, lawsuits and all, is over — after the ex-Empire star wrote a check. Actually, two checks. A day after officials for the Windy City announced they had reached…

Lee Daniels is mourning the loss of his sister Lydia, who inspired Taraji P. Henson’s Empire character Loretha “Cookie” Lyon. In a heartfelt post on social media, Daniels paid tribute to his late sister with some touching words and a photo of them together. “As the fires are burning, so is…

Lee Daniels’ background in independent film – Monster’s Ball, Precious – once had him wondering what it would be like to work for a studio, a curiosity that was finally satisfied when he made Empire for Fox. Or maybe satisfied is the wrong word. “Horrible. Absolutely the worst experience…

Five years after Jussie Smollett‘s alleged hate crime hoax, Lee Daniels is open to working with the actor again. The Academy Award nominee said that Smollett “was a son” to him after working together on his hit Fox series Empire, which ran for six seasons from 2015 to 2020, and Daniels would…

In a wide-ranging interview with Empire, Hayden Christensen has revealed his doubts that he’d win the role of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. He also talked of its backlash. Christensen, now 42, was just 19-years-old when he debuted as the future Darth Vader in 2002’s Star Wars…

Taraji P. Henson, who has been speaking out about pay disparity in Hollywood, reveals she fired her entire team for not capitalizing on the success of her hugely popular Cookie character on Empire. Henson starred as Cookie Lyon, the wife of former drug dealer turned hip-hop mogul, Lucious…

'It’s time for change," former Empire star Terrence Howard said today announcing he is suing CAA over allegedly screwing him financially over the hip hop soap's blockbuster six season run.  "We need accountability. We need access. We need to be able to share in the profits." In a press…

Jussie Smollett could soon be back behind bars after an Illinois appeals court today backed the ex-Empire actor's disorderly conduct convictions stemming from a faked hate crime and playing fast and loose with the truth with Chicago cops. "We affirm the judgment of the circuit court of Cook…

Empire, an absurdist period drama about Denmark's colonial history from filmmaker Frederikke Aspöck and writer Anna Neye, has won the 2023 Nordic Council Film Prize.  The award was announced Tuesday evening during the Nordic Council Prize ceremony at the Opera house in Oslo. The gong was handed…

Former Empire star Jussie Smollett has filed an appeal of his 2021 conviction for faking a hate-crime attack in Chicago in early 2019. “The renewed prosecution of Mr. Smollett violated his due process rights,” attorney Heather Widell wrote in the court document filed Thursday (read it here)…

Sweden's Göteborg Film Festival returned this month after two pandemic-disrupted editions with an accomplished crop of urgent and highly-political competition titles. On opening night, there was Abbe Hassan's Exodus, a tender thriller about the lives of refugees in Europe, while Malou Reymann's…

EXCLUSIVE: REinvent International Sales has picked up Empire, an absurdist period drama about Denmark's colonial history from Danish filmmaker Frederikke Aspöck. Conceived and written by Anna Neye, who also stars in the film's lead role, Empire is set in the Danish West Indies in 1848 and is a…