Woman claims she's the real Cookie Lyon, sues Lee Daniels
A Detroit woman named Sophia Eggleston claims that she is the real life Cookie Lyon, and Empire's makers, including Daniels, plagiarized her book while crafting Henson’s captivating character.
Lee Daniels successfully created an über-hit TV show with origins in West Philadelphia with "Empire," starring Philly's own Bryshere "Yazz" Gray and area transplant Terrence Howard. The show's hype, however, has not come without a fair amount of controversy.
Earlier in the year, Daniels disputed actress Mo'Nique's claims that she was originally supposed to be cast for Cookie Lyon, played by Taraji P. Henson. Then, rumors swirled that hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was suing "Empire" creators after he accused the show of plagiarizing his life. He even banned his son from appearing on the show.
And now, a Detroit woman named Sophia Eggleston claims that she is the real life Cookie Lyon, and the show's makers, including Daniels, plagiarized her book while crafting Henson's captivating character.
"The whole city's been telling me Cookie is basically me," Eggleston, 53, told Page Six.
She's suing Daniels, co-creator and writer Danny Strong and Fox for $300 million in a suit in which she claims she was a "drug kingpin" who served prison time for placing a hit on a man. Her book, "The Hidden Hand," got the attention of screenwriter Rita Grant Miller, also named in the suit, and Eggleston went to Los Angeles in 2011 to meet with her about creating a screenplay based on the book. Eggleston even claims she got a call from Miller saying she planned to pitch the story to Daniels but eventually didn't hear back from Miller and stopped working with her.
Underlining the similarities to her life, Eggleston's suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Michigan, says, "Cookie was a drug kingpin that went to jail. So did plaintiff Eggleston. Cookie is released from jail confinement and immediately places a hit on a certain individual. Plaintiff … actually was jailed for doing the actual hit on a man."
Fox and Daniels did not comment on the allegations. Miller, however, told Dailymail, "This is a frivolous lawsuit based on ridiculous lies. … We never once discussed Lee Daniels and never once signed a contract."