XPost: rec.arts.tv, rec.arts.sf.tv, alt.tv.babylon-5   
   From: forrest@lmcg.wisc.edu   
      
   "Alison Hopkins"  writes:   
      
   > I think I have said it pretty explicitly. They were told they had no choice   
   > but to accept a lower package. I will not identify the actors.   
      
   I never disputed that.  I simply object to your use of the term "crapped on"   
   as if there was anything else that could have been done.   
      
   Can we stick to the facts?   
      
   PTEN was folding and season 4 was completed as if there would be no season 5.   
      
   TNT came in at the last minute and offered to fund a fifth season.   
      
   No contracts were changed.  TNT was buying the package "as-is" from WB.   
      
   Under the terms of those contracts, the actors were going to lose out on   
   residual money because TNT is a basic cable station.   
      
   You call it "crapped on", I call it business as usual in the industry.   
      
   You keep saying they had no choice.  That's ridiculous.  They could have said   
   "no" and their situation would have been no different after the fact than it   
   was before - no fifth season, no job.   
      
   > Because jms took no hit at all. Because he went on to make an arm and a leg   
   > out of tat, having already taken $28K multiplied by 100 or so episodes.   
   > Because the cast were, to put it simply, bullied into accepting a worse   
   > package with very little time indeed to either consult or take advice.   
   > Literally, hours. Those who took the financial hit were the actors. Not any   
   > of the producers.   
      
   So you are basically objecting to the fact that the fees paid to writers and   
   producers didn't change because of the shift to basic cable.  Those were the   
   terms of the contracts.  That was what TNT was agreeing to pay for.   
      
   You keep making it sound as if there was time to renegotiate all of these   
   things.  There wasn't.  TNT offered WB a take it or leave it, JMS took that   
   offer to the cast, what am I missing?  It may not seem fair, but that was the   
   only deal that was going to be layed on the table.   
      
   --   
   Dan   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)