Dell's Steven busted for breaking strike

[topicolo]

The guy who does "Steven" for those crappy Dell commercials has been busted for violating a strike
click here (http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/07/15/television.strike.reut/index.html)

funny stuff

[alex_ant]

Is the SAG a branch of government or something? When they fine an actor, does he/she legally have to pay the fine?

[3rdpath]

Originally posted by alex_ant
Is the SAG a branch of government or something? When they fine an actor, does he/she legally have to pay the fine?

much worse....they're a union....and yes he has to pay if he ever wants to work again. not to mention, they control the dispursment of your royalties so there's no getting around their penalties.

his new line is...

"dude, i'm screwed":D

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by alex_ant
Is the SAG a branch of government or something? When they fine an actor, does he/she legally have to pay the fine?

it's probably in their agreement with them somewhere... the question is, how do they decide how much the fine is? tiger woods and liz hurley being fined $100,000 seems to show that the money is a bit ridiculous. i am guessing it has something to do with how much the people make during said commercials.... but it's just funny that because there was a strike, sag ends up making money from these "fines"...


edit: 3rdpath put it much more clearly while i was posting.....

[alex_ant]

Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Pfeffercorn can bail him out...

[3rdpath]

the fines were hefty for hurley(that ho-bag) and woods...

SAG was sending a message that they don't mess around...not to mention there were many, many actors choosing to not work during the strike and it sets a bad example if people with their high profile violate SAG's orders.

woods admitted it and immediately apologized. hurley tried to play dumb and scam her way out of it...she came off looking quite unethical. the best thing the dell dude can do is apologize and write a check...

btw, unlike most unions or guilds, SAG is run by actors and the decisions are the results of member's desires. unfortunately, most of the unions here in hollywood are the typical outdated scams that offer little protection or benefits to their members while extracting large portions of member's paychecks.

[Hemingray]

A good reason why I will never join a union. I mean c'mon people... fined for making money? :rolleyes: (Tiger Woods is an exception to that comment...)

[bonehead]

A good reason why I will never join a union. I mean c'mon people... fined for making money?

They were fined for violating the terms of their agreement with the union, not for making money. SAG wants all their members to make money, it gives the union more power and more money.

btw, unlike most unions or guilds, SAG is run by actors and the decisions are the results of member's desires. unfortunately, most of the unions here in hollywood are the typical outdated scams that offer little protection or benefits to their members while extracting large portions of member's paychecks.

What union are you in? I think from your other posts you are a musician so maybe you're in the Musician's Union. Is that IATSE?
I'm in Local 700 (Editors Guild) and we pay quarterly dues, not a percentage of our salaries. The producers pay into our health and pension funds. So for my eight hundred or so bucks a year I get really good health insurance and a pension. As far as protection goes, all studios are signatories to the Basic Agreement so any studio job in my (and many other) profession(s) must be filled by a union member. As for salary, most picture editors are over scale so that doesn't matter but for assistant editors it's different. Producers wouldn't think twice about having them work eighty hour weeks with no overtime if they were allowed to. The union (and state law - although they don't seem to care much about the law) keeps that from happening.

I've worked with people that were complacent and lazy because the union culture had fostered those traits. I've also seen how ineffective unions can be for certain issues. However many companies would love to not pay any benefits or give insurance to their employees but unions prevent them from doing so.

I'm not blind to the bad side of organized labor, I'm only asking others to not be blind to its good side.

[3rdpath]

Originally posted by bonehead
I'm not blind to the bad side of organized labor, I'm only asking others to not be blind to its good side.

sorry bonehead, i may have been too general about the unions here. there are some good ones that protect their members...but there are some that just leach. i'm a local 47 member(musician's union) and they don't do squat for me...47 seems to cover the symphonic and movie session players but everyone else is on their own. my dues provide me nada.

i have friends who work on the visual side of things and all of their deals are cut by their agents and the ONLY thing the union does is call them for a piece of the action. the union doesn't set the rate/day length/provide benefits(that i know of) and yet they still have the nerve to hound them for $$$$. what a scam.

so i guess the bottom line is it just depends on what area of the bizz you work in. sounds like yours is a sweet deal-seems like the editing unions and sag/aftra really provide some nice benefits...:)

[bonehead]

Sorry to hear that Local 47 is so ineffective. Musicians need benefits as much as actors. Both groups suffer erratic employment and low pay unless they hit the jackpot. Has the union always been this way?