Ric Robertson Taking Paid Summer Hiatus From Movie Academy … 
‘The Big C’ Finale Airs On Showtime Tonight 
Obama Scandals Bring MSNBC 7-Year Low While Fox News Rises 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
DreamWorks Eyes January For ‘Glimmer’ And Dylan … 
Warner Bros TV & ‘Smallville’ Co-Creators … 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
UPFRONTS 2013: TV Spinoffs’ Almost Perfect Year 
OSCARS: Animated Feature Rule Change 
Cannes: Relativity Sets ‘Hunger Games’ Liam … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: Billboard Awards Surge From 2012, … 
Cannes: Park Chan-wook’s ‘Sympathy For Mr. … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Yahoo CEO Foresees Big Opportunities To Sell Ads On Tumblr 
Disney, Lucasfilm Animation Prep ‘Star Wars … 
Cannes: Deadline Crashes Palais Forum With Costa Gavras, … 
Hammond On Cannes: Sun Comes Out As Parties, Deals And … 
Kelly Rowland, Paulina Rubio In Talks To Join ‘X … 
‘Fast & Furious 6′ Breaks Records In … 
Specialty Box Office: ‘Frances Ha’ Triumphs As … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
‘Black Swan’ Unpaid Interns File Lawsuit
Fox Filmed Entertainment today finally gave its side of that lawsuit filed by two interns against Fox Searchlight over their work on the hit indie Black Swan. The studio maintains that the interns were working for director Darren Aronofsky’s production company well before Fox Searchlight ever became the distributor.
Now that we have had a chance to review this suit, it is clear that these are completely meritless claims aimed solely at getting press coverage for the litigants and their attorneys. These interns were not even retained by Fox Searchlight and, in fact, were working for the production company that made Black Swan well before Fox Searchlight even acquired its rights in the film. These individuals were never employed as interns or retained in any capacity by Fox Searchlight, which has a proud history of supporting and fostering productive internships. We look forward to aggressively fighting these groundless, opportunistic accusations.
The two former interns who worked on Black Swan are looking to end what they say is the studio’s improper use of unpaid interns. The plaintiffs, Alex Footman and Eric Glatt, claim the studio violated federal and state wage laws and are seeking back pay for work that they say should have been done by paid Searchlight employees. The U.S. Department of Labor requires companies that use unpaid interns to provide training similar to that of an educational institution, among other criteria. Footman said that as a production intern, he made coffee, cleaned, and took lunch orders for the staff. The plaintiffs are far from the only college graduates who took an unpaid internship to try to get a foot in the door in the film industry. Their lawsuit is seeking class action status on behalf of more than 100 unpaid interns on Fox Searchlight film productions.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Lawsuit fail.
Hey Alex and Eric…… Way to never work in Hollywood again!!!! Did anyone tell you that you don’t peel peanut m&m’s?
Stu Dio has indicated you have never done business with him.
I’d like to add you both to my professional network on LinkedOut.
Stu Dio
Agreed. There’s no I in team… Coincidentally, there’s no I in moron. Take care guys, I’m sure your war stories from the Hollywood frontlines won’t get old back in BFE for at least two weeks. I
GO INTERNS GO!
This is probably one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard in the world of production. Should Arnofsky have let the interns direct the actors or set up a shot instead? Interns are the low men/women on the totem pole. Their job IS to make coffee and take lunch orders. And, when they do that, they have the privilege of soaking up valuable information from the world around them. To even be an intern on a film is a privilege. If they don’t like their place in the world, then they should work hard so that they can eventually move up and have new interns/PA’s do the coffee brewing/lunch order taking. Filing a lawsuit is exactly what NOT to do. It’s cowardly/childish and I hope that they never find work in film production ever again.
have you ever worked for free? if so, did or did you not sign a waiver saying that you agreed to work without wages?
I think it’s no coincidence that “Black Swan” & “Black List” have the same number of letters Alex, Eric et al …
“er, i meant “blackhawk down”. no, um “men in black” that’s it, i worked for, what studio did that?”
Well done.
Think these guys and their lawyers really overplayed their hand, naming Searchlight to try to drum up more opportunists to get to a class action suit. Shame on everyone who reported without checking it out. Searchlight seems to be one of the only good places to work in this town, intern or not.
I interned on movie. Killed myself as a PA for a whole feature film. At the end the producer offered a job in his post-production office, (but that too would be more unpaid interning). Yay Hollywood.
I hope they win. This notion of using unpaid labor has gotten soo bad that it’s moved beyond Hollywood and has trickled down into non-industry related business were your now seeing restaurants and retail stores offering Internships. It’s truly disgusting.
Before you go overboard on crucifying these two kids (well, one of them is 42), realize that it’s a class action suit with over 100 other claimants. But I do agree with the sentiments that 1) their careers in this industry are now over and 2) there are many who would happily provide unpaid work in exchange for the foot in the door, the resume blurb, etc.
What’s also sort of tragic is that Glatt is apparently a 42-year old MBA who was working as an accounting intern. Let’s state the obvious and say that Glatt’s long-term prospects were bleak, at best, at that age.
And if you really expected it to be a “true” unpaid internship — in that the employer doesn’t derive benefit from the internship and it’s all just a “learning experience” — then I feel sorry for you, the 42-year old who accepts a position that you believe creates no value for the employer and isn’t even worth a regular position.
At 42, the “true internship” window has passed; you ought to be fighting for the foot-in-the-door internships where you get p*ssed on but you get connections — oh wait, you hated it and are now suing those connections.
No, there are not 100 other claimants. Not yet. This suit seeks to certify a class, which if Fox’s claims are correct, the named plaintiffs don’t qualify as members of. There’s no way to know whether there’s even one other intern interested bringing suit against Fox Searchlight. Seems very likely their class action attempt will fail. And they won’t be able to certify a class against Aronofsky’s production company.
They’ll never work in this town again!
c’mon interns, we’ve all been there. it sucks, but at least have the decency to passive aggressively ruin your bosses life from the inside instead of filing suit. It’s far more entertaining.
So these stupid idiots don’t even know the difference between a production company and a distributor…nice (unpaid) work.
A very public lawsuit that has now drawn national attention is not going to bode well for these guys’ careers.
Why couldn’t you have just talked shit behind their backs like normal people?
Was it Alex or Eric’s bright idea to trade in their careers in entertainment for the equivalent of a couple of months of minimum wage? Really curious to know who the genius behind this one was.
The entertainment industry has to stop doing this. It’s wrong. If you hire people then you must PAY them.
So the interns certainly sound like they didn’t think it through. However, it also sounds like their internships were nothing more than free labor that would otherwise have been paid for. So I agree with the lawsuit in principle.
Black list or not is irrelevant at this point. There are too many companies taking advantage of unpaid internships for free labor, and too many people are being put out of work because of this kind of greed.
See, the thing about a bad internship is… you’re not being paid. So quit. No biggie.
Also, I constantly did things as an intern that should have been done by paid employees, but am I going to complain when I’m asked to give development notes to a high-profile writer, but make him coffee first? Nope nope nope.
who said it was a ‘bad’ internship, though..?
Score Interns! Though they may not work again, an internship is not the same thing as a coffee-bitch. Hell, I’d be glad to get the coffee if it meant I got to be in the room when big decisions were made and worked out but that’s usually not the case. Usually your too busy being a busybody gopher to get the dish on anything, let alone learn about the industry (unless craft services count?).
As for Fox’s defense. Depends on how intertwined with the Production company they were, right? If that Foxy Searchlight was laying down the law on the production, especially the budget, in any substantial way before or during production then sounds like a case to me.
“Fox Searchlight, which has a proud history of supporting and fostering productive internships”
L.O.L.
*cut to any intern at Fox, Lysoling doorknobs around the office and carrying 18 Starbucks orders to her ’97 Camry*
Stop.stop.stop. put a pin in it. All parties of the production are finally and ultimately treated as the employees of the distrubution deal. Why is it to sign off with the deal memos that all employees are work for hire and their creative properties are then owned by the “studio”. But when it comes to something bad they dissolve all knowledge of the deals and distance their true ownership. Come on stand up, admit the practices of free labor, suck it up, pay the claim as you do for all frivolous suits to shut the plaintiffs up.
Studios, production companies and agencies use unpaid interns all the
time. It is an exploitative and despicable practice. They treat it as
if it is some sort of great privilege to work for them… No, it’s breaking
all sorts of labor laws because most of these entities just want free labor
and never even think about hiring these people or providing any sort
of education experience… Glad to see that the interns are raising the
issue. I suspect that it will fail but I’m glad they are suing….
Guys, it doesn’t mean they weren’t in fact on set or whatever for Black Swan. It means that legally they were interning for the director’s loan-out company. Because legally production companies AREN’T allowed to have interns work unpaid or without college credit. So what the BIG companies do is let the interns work for free under the umbrella of the loan-out company.
They’re not stupid, they know which movie they were working for. This is just the legal question of who was legally responsible for them.
I guess these kids never want to work in Hollywood again. It is a meritless claim and they should go back to where they came from. They are unemployable here and their attorneys should be disbarred. Attorneys have an obligation to not perpetuate fraud on the court. Are you kidding me that an attorney would not know to whom their clients were providing services?
Ah well, so much for that idea. Maybe next time they’ll find out who their actual employer is first.
Gotta love a good belly-laugh to start the morning!