Auction of movie roles probed by labor officials

By Jack on 2000-06-28 11:01:14

A new film project spearheaded by such heavyweights as the William Morris Agency, Yahoo! Auctions and Blockbuster ran afoul of California labor laws just hours after it was launched at a much-ballyhooed news conference Tuesday.?The project, called "Who Wants to be a Movie Star?" was designed to sell off speaking roles and behind-the-scenes jobs for a specific, yet-unnamed film project to the highest online bidders.?
But shortly after the project's launch at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, the labor commissioner's office launched its own investigation into what it is calling the "totally illegal" practice of selling jobs to the highest bidder.?
"It's a dead-on violation of the state labor code," said Mark Locker, chief counsel for the California Labor Commissioner, who said he wants the bidding to "cease immediately." "We have looked into this," Locker said of the site.?"Based on what we saw on the Web page, the law is being violated.?We are making calls today to get this project discontinued.?We would like them to post on the Web page that the bidding is discontinued.?We want them to do it immediately.?We are trying to get this thing stopped as soon as possible to ensure that any jobs on this motion picture project are given to people without charging those people one cent for those jobs." If the bidding is not stopped, Locker said, "there will be legal action taken."
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