Terrence Howard drops expletive during live Emmys interview

LOS ANGELES – Terrence Howard isn’t mincing words about his “Empire” character, calling him an expletive on the Emmy Awards red carpet during a live television interview.

Howard’s description Sunday of his volatile character on the Fox television series was bleeped by E! Entertainment Television. Red carpet host Giuliana Rancic was briefly taken aback before asking Howard’s wife whether the actor brought any of his character home with him.

Howard’s wife, Mira Pak, responded that he did, and quite often. Howard then joked that he had people hanging in their bathroom before the conversation turned to the couple’s infant son.

Howard’s character, Lucious Lyon, is a bigoted, homophobic music mogul who hits his children.

The red carpet exchange led some online commenters to bring up Howard’s history of domestic violence. He has admitted he struck his first wife in anger, and he is still fighting with his ex-wife Michelle Ghent over their divorce and her allegations he was physically abusive during their relationship.

A judge threw out the couple’s divorce judgment and the ruling is on appeal. Ghent is also suing Howard over alleged abuse, which the actor denies.

Howard was also the victim of mistaken identity on the Emmys red carpet — the official Twitter account of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences sent out a tweet identifying Howard as Emmy nominee Cuba Gooding Jr. It quickly corrected the tweet.

Although Howard wasn’t nominated for an Emmy Award, he did present the outstanding supporting actor in a limited series category.