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February 22, 2005
Central Casting Sued
The largest casting agency, Central Casting, in Los Angeles is being sued:
Central Casting/Extras Management Lawsuit: Case Info
Allegations
1. Plaintiff Jonathan Adler at all times herein mentioned was, an
individual residing in the State of California, County of Los
Angeles, and is suing both in his individual capacity and on behalf
of the general public as to the third cause of action.
2. Plaintiff Jonathon Wright is, and at all times herein mentioned
was, an individual residing in the State of California, County of Los
Angeles, and is suing both in his individual capacity and on behalf
of the general public as to the third cause of action.
Defendant Entertainment Partners Group, Inc.
(hereinafter "Entertainment Partners" is, and at all times herein
mentioned was, a California corporation in good standing and doing
business in the County of Los Angeles, State of California. Defendant
Entertainment Partners is a subisidiary of defendant Draney as 100%
of it's stock is owned by said defendant.
Defendant Carl Joy is, and at all times herein mentioned was, an
individual residing in the County of Los Angeles, State of California
and was a vice president of defendant Entertainment Partners and the
manager of defendant Central Casting.
Defendant Richard Spiker and/or Steven Spiker individually, and doing
business as Extras! Management, were, and at all times herein
mentioned are doing business in the County of Los Angeles, State of
California.
Defendant Jimmy Jue is, and at all times herein mentioned was, an
individual residing in the State of California, County of Los
Angeles, and employed by Central Casting as a casting director.
Defendant Rodney Epps is, and at all times herein mentioned was, an
individual residing in the State of California, County of Los
Angeles, and employed by Central Casting at some unknown time
believed to be in 2003.
Plaintiffs are ignorant of the true names and capacities of
defendants sued herein as Does 1 through 300, inclusive, and
therefore sue these defendants by such fictitious names. Plaintiffs
will seek leave of court to amend the Complaint to allege the true
names and capacities of such defendants when same is ascertained.
In doing the things as alleged herein, each of the business entity
defendants knew, or should have known of the conduct and activities
of the acts committed by defendants Jimmy Jue, Rodney Epps and does 1
through 100 as alleged herein and consented to, acquiesced in and/or
ratified the conduct of said defendants.
As will be explained herein, Central Casting and Extras! Management
and it's predecessors conspired to and did develop a scheme to
defraud members of the Screen Actors Guild(hereinafter SAG) seeking
employment as extras in theatrical, television and commercial
productions. The scheme to defraud includes, but is not limited to:
A-Charging an artist/extra an advance fee for procuring, offering,
promising or attempting to procure employment or engagements for a
monthly fee believed to be $65.00 without a written contract in
violation of Labor Code Section 1701.4 and as further described
herein;
B-providing employees, friends and/or family
(hereinafter "politicals") of defendants Central Casting, Extras!
Management, Jue and Does 1 through 100 with a disproportionately high
number of SAG engagements, including television commercials which
were at a higher pay scale, even when some of these politicals were
not SAG members to the detriment of SAG members(hereinafter "extras"
at times);
C-By suggesting, cajoling, compelling, and in other ways letting SAG
members know that is would be in their best interests to register
with Extras! Management at $65 a month in order to obtain engagements
from Central Casting thereby engaging in extortion in violation of
Penal Code Section 518;
D-By soliciting bribes and/or kickbacks in the form of cash and good
from those extras seeking engagements to ensure repeated and/or
higher paying engagements to the detriment of those SAG members
unwilling to pay such tribute in violation of Penal Code Section
641.3;
E-Defendant Extras! Management maintained a star or point system to
track the number of engagements a monthly paying SAG member received
to ensure that such member would receive a minimum number of
engagements a month to ensure the continued payment of $65.00 a
month.
The scheme to defraud works as follows:
A-A SAG member would pay a $20.00 registration fee to register with
Central Casting;
B-The SAG member would be encouraged to register with Extras!
Management to obtain engagements because Central Casting would
provide exclusive engagements offerings to Extras! Management.
Extras! Management would have photos of the SAG member on file
together with other identifying information so as to give the
impression that if would select the most suitable extra for the
offering;
C-When an engagement was available the extra would be called by
defendant Extras! Management and be provided with the name of the
casting director at Central Casting for more details about the
engagement;
D-In many instances and over many years, in order to obtain frequent
and ongoing engagements the extra was solicited to and did provide
things of value such as cash, cars, television sets, and other such
valuable considerations to Casting directors in order to obtain
future and frequent engagments;
E-Friends, family members, and employees of Central Casting and
Extras! Management would receive engagements without the necessity of
paying kickbacks and would also receive a disproportionately higher
number of engagements than those paying $65 a month, without the
necessity of registering with defendant Extras! Management and having
to pay said monthly fee;
F-Friends, family members, and employees of defendants Central
Casting and Extras! Management who were not SAG members would
nevertheless be sent to engagements which required such membership
and were provided with discretionary SAG union vouchers by the
assistant director or other appropriate personnel responsible for
this function. On occasion, unused SAG vouchers were sold on location
for $50 and submitted for payment as though the individual had
worked;
G-SAG members would obtain union engagements and appear on location
and forced to accept non-union vouchers and be paid at minimum wage
rather than union scale.
H-Bribes and/or kickbacks were paid to employees of defendant Central
Casting and others as part of the overall scheme to defraud.
I-When extras would voice disagreement and object to the system
created by the defendants, they would be threatened with being
blackballed, would be blackballed from further engagements, and in
other ways be damaged; and
J-When an extra stopped and/or refused to pay bribes and /or
kickbacks or the $65.00 a month to Extras! Management, the number of
engagements received was drastically cut back or no engagements were
received.
Plaintiffs Jonathan Adler and Jonathon Wright are two such SAG
members who did not succumb to the scheme to defraud to their
financial detriment.
Defendant Jimmy Jue is believed to have accepted kickbacks from
extras in the form of cash, car(s), a television set and other
personal property from an unknown date, but believed to be as early
as 1994, and continuing to the present.
Defendant Rodney Epps is believed to have accepted kickbacks in the
form of cash based on a percentage of the earnings received by the
extra from an unknown date up to and including sometime in 2003.
Upon information and belief, does 1 through 100 also received
kickbacks in the form of cash and/or other personal property in
exchange for providing extras with repeated engagements.
The conduct and actions of defendants Jue, Epps and does 1 through
100 was and is of common knowledge in the extras industry, with other
casting companies, call-in services, and production entities to the
extent that the defendant employers knew or should have known of the
practices as alleged herein and, in not addressing said practices
consented to, acquiesced in, and/or ratified such conduct.
Note: These are the General Allegations excerpted from the actual
Lawsuit Complaint filed against the Defendants.
Latest case status: The Defendants recently failed in their attempt
to have the case dismissed by moving it to Federal Court. Our remand
motion to return it to State Court was successful and several of the
Defendants are now scheduled for depositions.
Any media inquiries may be directed to maaporg@hotmail.com.
For a pro actor perspective, SAG and nonunion, see our group at:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/maaporg2004/
Posted by inthestars at February 22, 2005 04:00 PM
