Not Too Old To Fight
A group of television writers Tuesday filed more than 23 separate class action suits against Hollywood's movie studios, TV networks and talent agencies claiming age discrimination, after a similar suit was dismissed late last month.
The suit goes to the heart of a longstanding issue for Hollywood's veteran writers who find it increasingly difficult to locate work in today's youth-oriented pop culture.
In late January, federal Judge Stephen V. Wilson dismissed a similar suit against the same defendants, ruling the multiple defendants could not be sued in a single action, and Tuesday's suit is essentially a reaction.
"Judge Wilson told us that we couldn't sue all of the defendants in one class action case, so we have sued each of them separately," said plaintiffs' attorney Paul Sprenger.
Sprenger also said the judge ruled that federal law doesn't apply to talent agencies, so the group sued the defendants in California state Superior Court.
The original suit was filed in October 2000, and the basic allegations have not changed, Sprenger said. The suit claims that each defendant engaged in a pattern or practice of refusing to hire or represent them because of their age.
Increasingly in the entertainment business, movies, TV shows, videos, DVDs and other products are geared toward younger audiences.
The most lucrative audiences for TV networks are adults 18- to 49-years-old. They are the viewers advertisers want to reach most because they have growing families and, thus, are bigger spenders on home products and mass market goods like cars.
Movies, too, tend to see their biggest box office profits from younger audiences - kids in shopping malls who will see movies two or more times and young adults on dates.
The writers' group argues that as a result, studios and networks want to hire only young writers to create stories for youthful audiences.
They say talent agents - the gatekeepers to Hollywood jobs - also prefer younger writers, leaving older writers with long track records out in the cold.
Defendants include all the major broadcast television networks - NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, the WB and UPN - as well as movie studios such as Disney's Touchstone Pictures, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. Talent agencies include the William Morris agency, Creative Artists Agency and International Creative Management Inc., among others.
NBC is a division of General Electric Co.. ABC and Touchstone Pictures are part of The Walt Disney Co.. CBS and UPN are owned by Viacom, parent company of this Web site. Warner Bros. and the WB are part of the AOL Time Warner Inc. stable of entertainment assets. 20th Century Fox and the Fox television network are part of News Corporation.