Actor Eddie Murphy gets a clean chit after a comedian, who shares his last name, dropped a defamation lawsuit against the star.

Brando Murphy had filed a $50 million lawsuit against "The Nutty Professor" actor, accusing him of jeopardising his stand-up career by criticising his act. He also alleged members of the star's entourage had threatened him, reports contactmusic.com.

The case has now been dropped, and Brando cleared that it was never his intention to offend the actor.