CSI:NY Pay Raise Makes Studios Look Like Fools


by Paul William Tenny

I really want to drive this point home so that people stop believing the lies coming out of Hollywood studios. Josef Adalian of Variety reported last night that Gary Sinise is getting a pay raise for his gig on CSI at exactly the same time studios are crying - literally crying - at the negotiating table with the Writers Guild of America about losing money on television production. They are demanding that writers give up residuals (half their payment, for some writers most of it) until after a program shows a profit on paper (never in the history of television has a program shown a profit on paper. Seriously, Fox claims The Simpsons is being produced at a loss.)

So how much is Sinise making, versus how much writers make?

Gary Sinise: $200,000 per episode, every single episode ($5m on the year)
Writers: $30-40,000 per script, perhaps 4 scripts per writer (if that) for about $160,000 a year. Probably less.

So, studios, if you're bleeding money, why are you making already super-rich actors even more rich, while screwing writers over for pennies on the dollar? I hate to talk like this because I want to maintain a professional tone here, but these studios are really pissing me the fuck off with these games. They pay actors by the truck load with the left hand and are digging into writers wallets with the right, asking for a damn hand out.

Piss off! (to them)


in Labor

Tags:



Related posts:



Leave a comment



View more stories by visiting the archives.

Media Pundit categories