‘Empire’: First Look at Taye Diggs As Cookie’s Well-Connected Beau

Empire is getting some new Diggs!

Season 3 finds Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) falling for a well-moneyed city councilman named Angelo Dubois (Taye Diggs, above right), who has his sights set on higher office. “Angelo is loosely modeled on Barack Obama,” says writer and co-executive producer Malcolm Spellman. “He could be anything he wants in life but chose civil service and takes it very seriously.”

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Cookie’s testy ex-hubby, Lucious (Terrence Howard), won’t like this one bit. “Though polite and mannered, Angelo is a real force,” Spellman says. “He and Lucious are on a collision course.”

Empire, Season premiere Wednesday, Sept. 21, 9/8c, Fox