It looks like someone else has joined Mo’Nique in calling out director Lee Daniels. This week, a video surfaced from a Diana Ross concert showing Damon Dash confronting Lee Daniels and telling him that he plans to sue him for $2 million that he allegedly owes him.
Here’s everything we know about the ongoing feud between Daniels, Dash and the film and television projects that have come in between:
2001 — Monster’s Ball starring Halle Berry is released. Berry receives critical acclaim for her role, becoming the first and currently only black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Lead Actress. Monster’s Ball was the first movie from Daniels’ production company, Lee Daniels Entertainment, and is the first film that he produced.
2003-04 — Daniels allegedly asks Dash for some money for his feature directorial debut, Shadowboxer, which starred Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding Jr., Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Mo’Nique. According to Dash, he gave Daniels $2 million and said that Daniels promised to pay him back. Meanwhile, in 2004, Daniels’ second-produced film, The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgewick and Mos Def, is released to critical acclaim at Sundance. Dash receives executive producer credit on these films.
2005 — Shadowboxer debuts and Daniels exits stage left, according to Dame.
2009 — Daniels asks Mo’Nique to star in his next film, an adaption of Sapphire’s book, Precious, to the tune of $50K. Mo’Nique accepts, and the film later picks up steam once Oprah Winfrey endorses it. The film debuts in 2009 to acclaim and some critiques, making stars out of Gabourey Sidibe and Daniels. Mo’Nique also picks up an Oscar for her role. However, according to the comedian, she refused to do relentless press without pay, which bothered Daniels, Winfrey and Tyler Perry, who produced Precious. Mo’Nique says because of this, she was blackballed. This stance causes friction between Mo’Nique and Daniels’ camp.
2010-2014 — While Daniels’ star power continues to rise with critically acclaimed films The Paperboy (Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman) and The Butler (Forest Whitaker, Oprah, Mariah Carey), Mo’Nique’s is smeared noticeably, and her public profile is dampened despite a critically acclaimed performance in HBO’s Bessie and some dabbling in production herself with the film Blackbird in 2014. Dash hits Daniels with his first lawsuit in 2014, as well, saying he is owed money and Daniels cheated him out of executive producer credit on these recent films.
2015-2016 — Daniels makes an expansive move into television at Fox, bringing the rating juggernaut Empire (Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard) and its spinoff, music drama Star (Queen Latifah); the shows return for their fifth and third seasons, respectively, this fall. A settlement is reached in 2015 from the lawsuit Dash filed against Daniels.
2016-18 — Dash reappears on the market, rebranding himself as a holistic entrepreneur and admitted diabetic. He also has a supporting role on the reality show Growing Up Hip-Hop, which stars his son, Boogie. While stirring up buzz for his media network (including a streaming service, Dame Dash Studios, and other enterprises), Dash makes multiple references to the $2 million he offered Daniels and how Daniels has yet to pay him back. These comments had also been an ongoing conversation with less buzz for years, especially on the Combat Jack Show, hosted by the late rap lawyer-turned-media mogul, Reggie Ossé.
2017-2018 — Mo’Nique speaks on her blackballing publicly in numerous ways, but the news doesn’t pick up steam until 2017, beginning with a plea to “boycott” Netflix after what she considers being lowballed for a comedy special contract.
Amid the many controversies Dame’s interviews caused, these comments about Daniels seemed to corroborate behavior Mo’Nique detailed in her allegations.
However, the two trees of thought never fully meshed so publicly until this week, when Dame decided to perform a full-on Nardwuar-style ambush on Daniels at a concert, record it and detail further via Instagram. Will this saga ever end?
