Actress sues Amazon over her age on its IMDb site

[julian_craster]

Actress sues Amazon over her age on its IMDb site
An actress has sued Amazon.com for more than $1m (£639,000) after her age was posted on its Internet Movie Database......

BBC NEWS
BBC News - Actress sues Amazon over her age on its IMDb site

If the DOB is genuine, surely she has no case?

Incidentally, the real DOB of Susannah York only emerged at the obituaries stage....

[Rowdon]

I think the problem is that her genuine DOB was given when she joined up, so it's supposedly it's confidential information, not given as part of a public profile. The question is whether the imdb has abused their database.

[Gerald Lovell]

It depends on the contract she had with IMDb: it may have been part of the agreement that her age was not to be disclosed.

[didi-5]

It sounds bonkers to me ...

[faginsgirl]

It was a mistake BIG DEAL! That`s life for other common folk! Tell them to change it. No need to sue them for a million quid!

What an opportunity grabbing...!

[wearysloth]

I shall watch this case with interest...
Nobody has ever asked for their DoB to be removed so far. Three folk have asked for pictures to be removed, two with legal menaces.

in an earlier legal precedent
"age is not such an intimate or personal fact that it can be the basis of a privacy claim." Galdauckas v. Interstate Hotel Corp., 901 F. Supp. 454 (D. Mass. 1995)

[Steve Crook]

Lots of actors (& actresses) ask for their date of birth to be removed from the IMDb. We often see requests for it on the Contributors Help board. But the IMDb rules are that they will correct an incorrect date of birth but they will never remove a correct one (apart from for a minor).

The trouble is that someone's date of birth isn't exactly private information, it's available in many places like in government records which anyone can check. But actors in particular get upset when they are refused a role and they think that it might be because the casting people read their DoB on the IMDb and excluded them just on that. They can't be sure that's why they were refused the role but it's something that they can lash out at.

Of course they should really be having a go at the casting directors but they are scared to do that in case they get a bad reputation with them as being awkward.

I expect that this case will be laughed out of court because the plaintiff won't be able to prove that the IMDb used the date of birth given when they registered. It could have been given by a contributor or found by the IMDb in many other ways.

Steve

[agutterfan]

Actress sues Amazon over her age on its IMDb site
An actress has sued Amazon.com for more than $1m (£639,000) after her age was posted on its Internet Movie Database......

BBC NEWS
BBC News - Actress sues Amazon over her age on its IMDb site

If the DOB is genuine, surely she has no case?

Incidentally, the real DOB of Susannah York only emerged at the obituaries stage....

This is why she's suing:

The lawsuit states: "If one is perceived to be 'over-the-hill,' i.e., approaching 40, it is nearly impossible for an up-and-coming actress, such as the plaintiff, to get work as she is thought to have less of an 'upside,' therefore, casting directors, producers, directors, agents-manager, etc. do not give her the same opportunities, regardless of her appearance or talent."

Sadly, this is a fact in Hollywood for actresses. She is obviously suing on the grounds of potential loss of work and therefore earnings. It is an interesting aside that only recently has it been made illegal to ask one's D.O.B. or age for job applications in the UK! The hypocrisy of Hollywood is that this not a factor with male actors. Harrison Ford can still be a lead actor (indeed, a romantic lead) at his age, whereas an actress of the same age could only play his mother in a supporting role.

[Steve Crook]

This is why she's suing:

The lawsuit states: "If one is perceived to be 'over-the-hill,' i.e., approaching 40, it is nearly impossible for an up-and-coming actress, such as the plaintiff, to get work as she is thought to have less of an 'upside,' therefore, casting directors, producers, directors, agents-manager, etc. do not give her the same opportunities, regardless of her appearance or talent."

Sadly, this is a fact in Hollywood for actresses. She is obviously suing on the grounds of potential loss of work and therefore earnings. It is an interesting aside that only recently has it been made illegal to ask one's D.O.B. or age for job applications in the UK! The hypocrisy of Hollywood is that this not a factor with male actors. Harrison Ford can still be a lead actor (indeed, a romantic lead) at his age, whereas an actress of the same age could only play his mother in a supporting role.

And that's why she should be suing the casting directors if she can prove that any of them have discriminated against her by her age rather than by her perceived age. But it's impossible to prove that's why she missed out on any roles and she wouldn't want to get a reputation as a troublemaker with them. So she's on a hiding to nothing on all counts

Steve

[julian_craster]

Age doesn't seem to be a problem for Dame Helen Mirren ........

And how can one be an 'up and coming' actress at 40 ?

It would be interesting to know what her track record in films is (is she Julia Roberts ? ), or whether she is just another unemployed actor seeking to get an easy $1 million....

At 40 she will just have to accept playing mothers rather than daughters in high school comedies !

[Brett Sinclair]

Being the ageing cynic that I am, I think the point is that someone gave her the chance to potentially 'earn' $1M that she would have found perhaps harder to earn if she had to make a few films. Within the article we find that she is probably not a spring chick, and is not already a Julia Roberts, so we assume that she has either come to the boards later in life, or she really isn't that good. Either way, if someone opens the door for you to pick up a potential paycheck of that amount at that age (and not already being in the $m bracket for paid work)...then you grab the opportunity.

I may be wrong, but I would imagine that a better established actress would not be that interested in suing for $1M. If it was down to potential loss of earnings we are looking at a much higher figure.

[cjtsmith]

This is why she's suing:

The lawsuit states: "If one is perceived to be 'over-the-hill,' i.e., approaching 40, it is nearly impossible for an up-and-coming actress, such as the plaintiff, to get work as she is thought to have less of an 'upside,' therefore, casting directors, producers, directors, agents-manager, etc. do not give her the same opportunities, regardless of her appearance or talent."

Sadly, this is a fact in Hollywood for actresses. She is obviously suing on the grounds of potential loss of work and therefore earnings. It is an interesting aside that only recently has it been made illegal to ask one's D.O.B. or age for job applications in the UK! The hypocrisy of Hollywood is that this not a factor with male actors. Harrison Ford can still be a lead actor (indeed, a romantic lead) at his age, whereas an actress of the same age could only play his mother in a supporting role.

While I agree with all you say, it does seem odd that she is suing IMDB. It would be possible for casting directors to find out her age quite easily via public records. It seems to me that this actress is unable to sue 'the industry' in general for its prejudice, so is picking on a company that she thinks has deep pockets (i.e. Amazon).

Also, how do we know that she didn't lose parts for solid reasons like her acting ability, rather than her age? Perhaps it is easier for her to blame it all on the prejudice of the industry than to face up to the truth.

Finally, I am not sure why it isn't OK to reject an actress (or an actor for that matter) on the basis of age or looks anyway. Surely it is important that he or she looks right for the particular part? It therefore depends what the parts were that she was auditioning for. I suspect this is why she does not simply sue a specific casting director - she knows she wouldn't win. It would be the equivalent of a black actor suing for racism when he is not considered for the part of Charles II, or an actress suing for sexism when she is not considered for the part of James Bond?

Come to think of it - maybe Dudley Moore's one-legged man had a case for disability discrimination against Peter Cook's casting director for not getting the Tarzan role after all ...

[Brett Sinclair]

While I agree with all you say, it does seem odd that she is suing IMDB.

If you read the second post in this thread by Rowdon ...that is the crux of this matter. Plus, if what I think is true, the actress has yet to find grounds to sue a prospective employer, but already thinks she has grounds to sue IMDB

[CaptainWaggett]

Hollywood unions back call for IMDb to stop publishing actors' ages | Film | guardian.co.uk

[didi-5]

Oh for goodness sake, this is getting ridiculous. Hollywood needs to stop being so ageist and celebrate its older actresses and the wealth of experience and maturity they have instead of employing blonde bimbos or ageing ladies who strive to look young so desperately they look like pieces of plastic.

[Steve Crook]

Hollywood unions back call for IMDb to stop publishing actors' ages | Film | guardian.co.uk

Of course they do, because they are afraid to tackle the real problem, casting directors who put too much emphasis on an actor's age. The actors won't tackle that because they are terrified of getting a reputation for being awkward

Steve

[faginsgirl]

Obviously, people in real life must die at age 35 and are resurrected again at 70 to show people what it is like to be lonely, looking out onto a beach reminising with your daughter and grand daughter, or what it's like to take your clothes off and bring out a calendar, or sit with your stick pretending you are in a time machine moving from 1912 to the 1920's at the speed of light!

[Dame Starry]

Hollywood needs to stop being so ageist and celebrate its older actresses and the wealth of experience and maturity they have instead of employing blonde bimbos or ageing ladies who strive to look young so desperately they look like pieces of plastic.

Hollywood already does celebrate older actresses - the GENUINELY talented ones anyway.

This woman obviously has a higher opinion of her talents than anybody else. I wonder if anybody has ever heard of her before? She's probably been racking her brains as to why she doesn't get any work for some time - and stumbled across this potentially money-making scheme. The thought that perhaps she hasn't got any talent doesn't seem to have entered her mind.

Age isn't the problem now - it's the competition. It's easy to be an actress, but there are so many of them and so little work now that film-makers can get the best.
I seriously doubt that Monroe would have been as successful today as she was in her own time.

A talented actress doesn't have to worry about her age or who knows it and, indeed, there are a huge amount of older and enormously successful Hollywood actresses past and present who have proved that.

Surely she has to give her correct age on her CV?

She will be laughed out of court and she'll have a helluva legal bill to pay for both sides - and I doubt that she'll ever work again to pay it off either.

[Dame Starry]

It is an interesting aside that only recently has it been made illegal to ask one's D.O.B. or age for job applications in the UK!

So how would employers know when their employees reached pensionable age?

It is illegal to discriminate job applicants on the grounds of age and interviewees cannot be asked direct questions about their age, but it is NOT illegal to ask for DOB or age on job application forms.

Age discrimination at work

[CaptainWaggett]

Human resources departments have access to national insurance details which is rather more reliable that what someone says on an application form . and there's no reason why you should give details once you're in post (after all, you don't give your bank details on you c.v. Most public sector application forms don't ask for an applicant's date of birth - why is it in any way relevant? Though education details do tend to be a bit of a give-away