Empire Creators Sued AGAIN As Production Company Owner Seeks $500m

The creators of Empire are being sued by a production company owner who insists he came up with the idea for the hit show - the third lawsuit to make such claims. Jon Astor-White is suing the show's creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, along with Imagine Entertainment and 21st Century Fox. He wants $500million, plus additional damages. Speaking to MailOnline Astor-White explained: 'In our minds it (Empire) is at least 75per cent of what we wrote.' Astor-White, who owns a Vegas based production company, claims in suit that a show he proposed back in 2007 - named King Solomon - had a huge number of similarities to Empire His treatment focused on a record producer and his family and their battle for control of the company, with Astor-White imagining that Kanye West, Richard Roundtree, Alicia Keyes, John Goodman, George Hamilton and Angie Dickinson would all want to be involved.

He states in his lawsuit that his show would have had 'the style and elegance of Dynasty meets The Sopranos with a sprinkling of The Godfather.' Astor-White claims he faxed his ideas to a number of production companies, and the theft of these ideas led to the creation of Empire. Back in 2000 Astor-White sued the Tropicana hotel-casino, five officers, an entertainment law attorney and the NAACP claiming he came up with the idea for the Las Vegas entertainers Hall of Fame. Astor-White has had links to Hollywood since the Seventies. On his company website he claims to have performed as a singer at the Playboy Mansion, worked as an actor in Hollywood, produced a TV show in Hollywood, run a number of Vegas shows and to have been friends with Elvis.  Empire has broken down barriers as the first TV series with an African-American cast to succeed globally since The Cosby Show. It features a hip hop and entertainment company, and the battle between the founder's family for control of the company after his diagnosis with ALS. But while the phenomenal success of the show has been credited with increasing diversity on our screens, it has also led to a series of lawsuits. These include a claim by self-labelled 'known ghetto player' Ron Newt that he met with Terrence Howard, who stars as Empire's Lucious Lyon. He wants one billion dollars. Another legal case was filed by Sophia Eggleston, who wants $300million. She says she is the 'real-life' Cookie and that the character's experiences mirror her own. Yet another lawsuit saw Fox sued by the owners of a small record company named Empire Distribution, who wanted the show's name changed. Fox filed a counter claim.