Tommy Lee Jones: Paramount Screwed Me Out Of $$ On ‘No Country For Old Men’

COMMENTS (29)

• To “gee tom?”

  You really can’t say “SAG gave Tom (Hanks) his start.” That’s way too “unionistic” for me.

  Hanks worked his ass off, had talent and made it work for himself. SAG was just there to see he got paid properly.

  Comment by ordinaryjoe — Monday September 8, 2008 @ 3:32pm PDT  Reply to this post

• ordinary joe:

  “just to see he got paid properly?”

  are you an actor? do you have any sag credits? they do a lot more than “make sure you get paid properly” my young friend. they make sure you get a 12 hour turnaround. they make sure you get meal penalties. and overtime. and residuals. and travel expenses. and a reasonable amount of hours in one workday. they have created a first class pension and health plan that our employers pay into. when you have a few more rings around your tree, IF you’ve done enough work, you’ll start to stare long and hard at that pension statement when it comes. they will pay your bills if you get sick. most of them anyway. you ever been sick “ordinary jor?” like sick, sick – real sick? you got any kids “ordinary joe?” didn’t think so. wait till you do and one of them has to have an operation. got 100k laying around? how about 250K? how bout a million bucks? want to float the tab on that without sag healthcare “ordinary joe?”

  sag protected hanks PROFESSIONALLY for YEARS before he, by his own talent, ambition and luck, popped and made it in movies. and every single movie he’s done? has been under a sag contract – which means, in case you don’t know – the whole show is under the watchful eye of sag – and if the producers start to fuck with actors (which, when you’ve worked a few jobs “ordinary joe” you’ll find out they’ll do at the drop of a hat to save time and money and because they mostly view actors as talking props) it’s sag that will bail your ass out. protect you from the suits. make sure your rights are observed and enforced.

  if that’s too “unionist” for you? go fi-core. you don’t think sag is important? – it’s all about your big swingin” talent “ordinary joe?” well, you better be pretty fucking good and pretty fucking lucky, cause these guys – producers – will eat you for lunch.

  it was years before hanks became self-insured, didn’t need these protections. he could use a little refresher course. he’s a union busting producer who should be called out on it. and, when all this is over? don’t think people will forget.

  trivializing and selling out sag and favoring aftra (wtf!) over sag in all this? it’s gonna come back to haunt him. you watch. a billion dollars can buy a lot of shit, but it will never buy him his reputation back as someone who WOULDN’T sell out his union because of his own self-interest in his producer gigs, and his belief he’s above all us little people, so he gets to smirk and say “take the dga deal – I don’t care if you want paper or plastic on your set – just take the dga deal” (a direct quote).

  Comment by gee tom? — Monday September 8, 2008 @ 8:32pm PDT  Reply to this post

• gee tom?:

  Any progress on the millions of $’s of overseas residuals being handed out lately?

  Zoinks!

  To answer your question.. I am not an actor, thankfully.

  I love actors, but don’t like dealing with SAG. Not because I don’t believe there are fair protections, mind you, just that the dudes running the show don’t care much for the customer(s) from what I have experienced.

  I could go on about it but have to end it there or else my underwear will show.

  Best to you though.

  Comment by ordinaryjoe — Tuesday September 9, 2008 @ 1:48am PDT  Reply to this post

• I worked at several broadcast networks and studios in my very long career (I retired several years ago), and I sat in many business affairs meetings where a producers back-end share would come up, or a bonus, or a blind script commitment, or a penalty owed to a producer/actor/writer would be discussed, and I can’t tell you how many times I heard the prexy or head of business affairs simply announce, “Screw ‘em. Make ‘em sue us,” or the old, “Don’t pay it and let’s see what happens.”

  This is business as usual, because most writers or producers or even big time actors won’t sue a network or major tv studio because they’re looking at the bigger picture of future employment.

  It’s very slimy, and I always wanted to take a shower after those meetings.

  Comment by ex-network exec — Tuesday September 9, 2008 @ 12:42pm PDT  Reply to this post