Madonna has submitted a declaration for her ex-husband Sean Penn’s lawsuit against Empire co-creator Lee Daniels, who he sued for defamation for making disparaging comments about him in relation to the show’s star, Terrence Howard.
Penn filed the $10 million lawsuit in September after Daniels spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about Howard’s domestic abuse allegations.
“That poor boy,” he said at the time. “[Terrence] ain’t done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn, and all of a sudden he’s some f***in’ demon. That’s a sign of the time, of race, of where we are right now in America.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, in support of his lawsuit, Penn has modified his original documents to include testimony from Madonna herself that he, in fact, never physically assaulted her during their marriage.
She called allegations he hit her in 1987 and 1989 “completely outrageous, malicious, reckless and false.”
Daniels' lawyers replied, "The fact that Penn felt the need to replace his initial complaint with a new filing is an undeniable concession that he viewed his original complaint as a loser. We don’t believe the new iteration will fare any better, as it does not change the fact that the statement is an opinion protected by the First Amendment."