Names and faces
Actor Sean Penn has filed a defamation lawsuit against Empire co-creator Lee Daniels over comments Daniels made comparing him with the show’s star, Terrence Howard, who’s been repeatedly accused of domestic violence. Daniels’ comments appeared online about a week ago in the entertainment publication The Hollywood Reporter in a story about the new season of the popular Fox television show. “That poor boy [Howard] ain’t done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn, and all of a sudden he’s some … demon,” Daniels said in the article. “That’s a sign of time, of race, of where we are right now in America.” Penn’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Manhattan civil court, says Daniels’ statements were egregious and injured Penn’s credibility and reputation personally, professionally and in his philanthropic activities. Penn has won two best-actor Oscars and made a humanitarian push in Haiti after it was devastated by an earthquake, co-founding the J/P Haitian Relief Organization. But Penn also has a reputation for angry behavior. His attorney, Mathew Rosengart, said the lawsuit isn’t just about Daniels’ comments. “Sean has been the subject of numerous baseless attacks over the years, as the complaint provides, and this is only the most recent example,” he said. Howard has been forced to publicly address domestic-violence allegations, including during testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom in August, when he acknowledged he struck his first wife in 2001 but denied abusing another ex-wife, Michelle Ghent.
In joining a campaign to use investment decisions to fight global warming, Leonardo DiCaprio announced plans to shed his own investments in fossil fuels, an activist group said. The star of The Wolf of Wall Street and Blood Diamond joined members of the Divest-Invest Coalition on Tuesday as it announced his plans and highlighted growth in such pledges during the past year. Advocates say their effort to put pocketbook and social pressure on traditional energy producers is gaining momentum; industry groups say the campaign is misguided and its impact negligible. Students began pressing various colleges in 2011 to drop their fossil-fuel holdings and increase their stake in renewable-energy companies. Now, foundations, pension funds, insurers, state and local governments and others worth a total $2.6 trillion have pledged to reduce or eliminate their fossil-fuel investments, the coalition said in a report released Tuesday. “Clearly, our movement is growing faster than expected,” said May Boeve, the executive director of 350.org, an anti-global-warming group. The coalition says more than 430 institutions and 2,000 individuals have signed on, compared with about 180 institutions and 650 people a year ago.