Rich Actors Don't Sweat The War Over DVD Residuals
While the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild have already tasted the back of the studios' collective bargaining hand when they asked for a bigger cut of DVD cash, the Screen Actors Guild is still hoping their current talks will shake some more home video money out of the producers sitting across the negotiating table. But they're not going to do any better than the DGA and WGA if their negotiating position is ruined by agents bragging that their A-list clients are already making fuck-you money from DVDs, and don't need to be bothered by piddling matters like a strike over residuals:
"It's not really something that some of our clients have to worry about," said Mr. [John] Ptak of the Creative Artists Agency.
Oh, those incorrigible agents, always fomenting intramural class warfare in the national press! For top-shelf CAA clients like Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks, a total Hollywood shutdown sounds like nothing more than a "classy problem" to be fretted over while floating in a champagne-filled pool in the Hills. And it is, until a mob of background actors hop over their gates and set up a shanty town on their front lawns.
