Auction of movie roles probed by labor officials

By Jack June 28, 2000 11:01 AM

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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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RE: Auction of movie roles probed by labor officia   reply

Posted by texan (udoh@noway.com) on June 29, 2000 9:30 AM

Blockbuster states "this is a sweepstakes and game of chance. It is not an auction...". They are scrambling for damage control because they were a part of this scam. 
Chief scam artists are Producer Dan Hassid, Director Tony Markes, Writer Adam Rifkin, and William Morris' Cassain Elwes. This is a flag thrown up about lack of ethics or good business sense for these businesses, including DNA Productions, Yahoo auctions, William Morris Agency, Blockbuster and all other businesses listed on the site. 
If a William Morris represented actor lands the fifth lead role for the winning bid of $30,413.00, does WMA pay 10% of the bid? I'm sure they will take 10% of the "SAG" wages (2 weeks @ $2,070/week)offered the successful actor landing the role. 
Hollywood rears an ugly head, and who has the guts to criticize these scam artists?