HOLLYWOOD: GAME OF WHORES

"I'm not saying he's a whore, but he's a whore." Screen Gems President Clint Culpepper wrote of actor/comedian Kevin Hart.

Of course Kevin Hart is a whore, Clint. I’m a whore too. We’re all whores in Hollywood, and the current structure of the entertainment business made us that way.

This was said, for Hart wanting additional compensation beyond his acting salary to tweet in support of one of his movies, in an email to Sony heads Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton that was part of a group of stolen documents posted on the Internet by a hacker group. While I feel this criminal act should not be rewarded with attention, I also think this labeling cannot pass without further scrutiny and discussion.

Most of the people employed in the TV and film business as crew and talent work as independent contractors, for fees and/or commissions, living from job to job.

Actors, producers, directors, writers, crew members and other service providers don’t have salaries or benefits like studio executives. You hire them when you want them, when you’re ready for them, they provide a service and then they go away. That’s a whore-like work structure to me. 

If you choose to pay 'ala carte' for all your services, then you should expect extra fees for extra services. You paid Hart to act in a film because he is a huge, popular star with a track record that will draw people to pay to see your movie. But you want more.

What else does Kevin Hart owe Columbia Pictures now? Is he supposed to do the job of the publicity and marketing departments as well? How about craft services too?

Press junkets, talk show tours are the norm, but now Kevin Hart is supposed to use his personal, authentic,  connection to his 10 million+ fans on Twitter for studio business purposes, for free?

And the best part is how you claim in your email that he should do this help himself, not your product. Yeah, right.

Once upon a time Hollywood had a “studio-system” that kept the majority of Los Angeles employed year round, producing filmed entertainment for the masses. They did this while working for “The Studio”. Actors, writers, crew; everyone had “day-jobs”. The studio was home and took care of its workers, while also exploiting them in every way possible.And yet everyone felt vested in the studio's operations.

This system built the middle class suburbs of the San Fernando Valley and others areas surrounding Hollywood. Television changed things but compensated the change with employment on TV series that ran for 32 episodes a season.

Cable TV changed things again so now actors and writers work part time on a cable series for 13 weeks a year that the studios, not independent production companies, own because media companies paid legislators to get rid of Fin/Syn rules years ago.

This year Warner Brothers cut approximately 1,000 jobs globally as part of a company-wide belt-tightening. The layoffs amount to more than 10% of the studio’s roughly 8,000-person workforce.

Meanwhile Time Warner’s 3^rd quarter of 2014 reported earnings of 97 cents a share on revenue of $6.24 billion. Analysts had estimated earnings of 94 cents a share and $6.16 billion in revenue. Revenues and profits are up.

Sony, Disney, Paramount, and Fox have all cut thousands of jobs over the last few years while their revenues and stock prices climbed but we’re the whores here? Please.

As the new Hobbit film opens, the Tolkien estate is fighting with Warner Bros./New Line. Despite the Lord of the Rings trilogy netting $2.9 billion in global box office sales, the studio said a profit wasn't made when counted against the production and distribution costs of all three films. All hail the bean counters, for they rule the world.

The studios have built a system that has no “net” for the players.

The studios, through their hardball contract negotiations with SAG/AFTRA, the WGA, and DGA, have structured this industry exactly the way they want it run and the people who used to have day jobs in the past know what the changes mean. More job insecurity for everyone.

Fortunately for the workers, every now and then, some get the power to protect their personal brands in the way Kevin Hart is doing now. There’s going to be more of this going forward in the digital age as technology and distribution pipelines advance and evolve.

This is what happens when workers feel like they are prostituting themselves for another's exclusive benefit. Extra Twitter fees are just the beginning. Get used to it. 

It’s your brothel Clint. If we’re the whores here, it’s because the studios are the pimps.