Should Terrence Howard's Private Behavior Impact Whether You Watch 'Empire?'

At what point should an actor's private behavior affect their public career?

That's never an easy line to define and more often than not, the public makes the decision based on a number of complex and often conflicting emotions. It never helps when there's video available, as Michael Richards can tell you. And as the recent example of Bill Cosby illustrates, having a lot of good will with the press and the public can hold off serious scrutiny for a long time.

But the toughest situations come when you're talking about an actor or actress who is familiar to audiences, but isn't at the superstar level. The public often doesn't know a lot about the personal lives of these middle-level actors and odds are that unless their personal lives turn very public due to some impossible to ignore event, most people won't care about what they do behind closed doors.

Which brings me to Terrence Howard, who is a very talented actor. He's an Academy Award nominee, and starred in the first Iron Man movie, "The Butler" and "St. Vincent." And he's now promoting his newest project, the upcoming Fox drama "Empire." But Howard is also an actor who has, as The Columbia Journalism Review recently put it, "has also starred in a surprising number of incidents in which women have ended up getting punched, as often as not in the face."

It's always difficult to parse the validity of these type of claims, especially since some charges were later dropped or settled out of court. But in the same way that Bill Cosby seems to be the subject of an unsettling number of sexual misconduct allegations, Terrence Howard has been involved in a unsettling number of physical encounters with women.

In 2000, he was arrested in Cleveland for allegedly assaulting a Continental flight attendant who asked him to return to his seat during the landing. The charges were later dropped by the Cleveland District Attorney, who cited a "lack of jurisdiction." But the police report cited witness statements that the actor had grabbed the attendant's wrist and attempted to push her.

The following year, Howard was arrested in Whitemarsh. PA following an altercation with his estranged wife Lori McCommas. According to the official police report, Howard and McCommas were arguing on the phone when he warned her "Don't disrespect me by hanging up on me or I'll come over and hurt you." She hung up on him and he later broke down her front door and punched her twice in the face. Howard admitted to the act and a number of charges around the incident were negotiated down to a 2002 deal in which pled guilty to disorderly conduct.

Last year Philadelphia Magazine reported on a previously undisclosed 2005 incident in which Howard allegedly repeatedly punched two strangers who were seated before him at Ray's Dining Car in Philadelphia. According to the magazine, Danielle DiStefano and Kevin Saffell were in line directly in front of Howard and the actor lost his temper after they were seated before him. He punched DiStefano in the chest and repeatedly punched Saffell before fleeing the scene. He was later arrested and charged with harassment and assault, but the charges were later reduced to disorderly conduct.

Howard married wife number two, Michelle Ghent, in January, 2010 and they separated within a year. In the divorce papers filed by Ghent, she alleged a series of beatings and threats by Howard, including several beatings and one incident in which
she claims he pulled a knife on her. Ghent later obtained a restraint order against the actor, who claimed that his ex-wife was the one who instigated the violence.

Then in May, 2012, Howard was involved in a bizarre confrontation at his Pennsylvania home in which he allegedly assaulted sometimes girlfriend May Seng Yang while his then-current girlfriend Erica Jiles watched the fight. According to a police report, the fight began after Yang confronted Howard, claiming he had given her herpes. Yang claimed Howard threw her to the ground, punched her in the eye and choked her. Howard later argued that Yang also assaulted him and the pair later settled the claims as part of an out-of-court deal. That deal later led Yang's lawyer to sue her, claiming that he was due a portion of the $75,000 she had allegedly received from Howard as part of the agreement.

In August, 2013, Howard and Ghent took a trip together to Costa Rica and the attempt at reconciliation didn't end well. Ghent filed charges against Howard, claiming she was forced to pepper spray him after he punched her in the face. She later filed another series of charges following an incident in which she claimed he assaulted her in Toronto and threatened to do a murder-suicide with an X-Acto knife. As part of the second filing, Ghent included a longer series of texts she claimed came from Howard including ones in which he compared himself to the Devil and wrote

"I have never felt so low as I do now and wish that I wasn't such a coward and that I had the courage to finish what should have been accomplished in the abortion clinic 44 years ago.......I don't deserve to live anymore and you never deserved any of this..I'm so sorry!"

I'm not going to argue that Howard shouldn't have a successful public career. That's up to the public and to the entertainment media, who are ultimately the ones who will decide whether or not any of this matters. And based on the records from Howard's divorce from Michelle Ghent, she appears to have some serious problems of her own. But I do think it's interesting that while these stories have received a fair amount of attention in the local Philadelphia and NYC press, they haven't exploded in the way they might have if they had committed by another actor.

The TV press doesn't have a problem discussing at length whether or not "State Of Affairs" star Katherine Heigl and her mom are "difficult." But I haven't seen anyone ask Howard the very legitimate question about whether he has anger issues and whether or not stories about his on-set behavior on movies such as "Iron Man" might lead some people to claim he's difficult.

Why hasn't that happened? I'll leave it to readers to try and figure out that mystery.