Sean Penn’s lawyers investigated the 1988 night his marriage to Madonna imploded before they sued director Lee Daniels for defamation.
The lawyers tracked down the Malibu, Calif., sheriff’s deputies who raided the couple’s house the night of Dec. 28, 1988, after Madonna had complained to them about a nasty marital spat.
The deputies told Penn’s team there was no evidence the actor had assaulted his wife that night, a source said. “That’s why there was no arrest.”
There were, however, widespread tabloid reports at the time that Penn had roughed up Madonna and held her captive for nine hours, “trussed up like a turkey.”
Even though Penn and Madonna have repeatedly denied the rumors, Daniels evidently was relying on those false reports when he defended his hot-tempered “Empire” star Terrence Howard in September, saying he “ain’t done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn, and all of a sudden he’s some f - - kin’ demon.”
Madonna denied the story of being tied up three months after the supposed incident. She told Rolling Stone magazine: “They made it all up. But I expect it. They’re always making s - - t up.”
In mid-December, Madonna denied it again in a sworn statement: “While we certainly had more than one heated argument . . . Sean has never struck me, ‘tied me up,’ or physically assaulted me.”
Though Penn has punched a paparazzo or two, he has never been accused of hitting a woman, and the Malibu incident has been haunting him for 27 years.
“It’s a righteous case,” a Penn supporter told me.
Daniels will have to do more than just apologize to make it go away. Penn’s lawyers are said to want “a cash component,” as well.
