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Economist and writer and humorist and actor Ben Stein has filed suit against Kyoscera Corp and advertising agency Seiter & Miller alleging that an agreement for him to appear in TV commercials was illegally breached because of his personal and political beliefs about global warming. Stein’s memorable jacket-and-tie deadpan persona has figured in numerous TV commercials and appearances. Not to mention his iconic turn in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. According to Stein’s suit, Grace Jao of Seiter & Miller in December 2010 contacted his agent Marcia Hurwitz of Innovative Artists about appearing in commercials for Kyocera printer products and about speaking at a company function. Over the course of about five weeks, the suit claims, the parties reached an agreement on all significant deal points including payment of Stein’s fee of $300,000 for shooting the commercials and for the speaking engagement. The circumstances led Hurwitz to believe the deal was done, the suit says, and Stein planned accordingly.

Early in February 2011 Jao contacted Hurwitz, the suit says, to inform the agent that questions had been raised over Stein’s beliefs about global warming and the environment and whether they were “sufficiently conventional and politically correct for Kyocera,” according to language in the suit. Hurwitz told Jao that as far as she was concerned the deal was done, the suit said, and Stein’s political and scientific views were not part of his contract for extolling the company’s printers.

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Thank you to everyone who participated in the informal have you been ostracized? poll. The results were interesting. More “in the closets” than I expected, and as I read the words, “just keep my mouth shut,” I became rather angry that my fellow Big Hollywood readers feel bullied in the workplace. Because that is what it is: bullying. When a human being fears that he may lose his job if he has the wrong thoughts, he is being bullied. Period. It doesn’t matter if the taunts are in your face or hovering unannounced in the air, only a bully uses his size and power to intimidate others into toeing the line.

Several of you indicated that you have lost your job, left your career or been blacklisted, which is even more disheartening.

Graphic designers and people in advertising, according to the comments, feel compelled to keep a very low profile. It makes sense, because this is an industry where the work must be commissioned. In order to stay employed, the artist needs to stay in the good graces of the powers that be. (more…)

Every time I speak about my experiences with the publishing industry, someone taps me on the shoulder, eager to share a story of their own. It should not surprise me – Big Hollywood is a site dedicated to the biases of the entertainment industry – but I am moved by the instant camaraderie I feel for the individual standing before me. It is as if we carry wounds that only fellow political outcasts could possibly understand, and when one of us emerges from beneath the cone of silence, there is hope that another may do so at any moment.

I thought that perhaps it would be an interesting project to take an informal poll of Big Hollywood readers – conservatives, libertarians, and individuals who subscribe to other improper schools of thought – who work in the entertainment industry and feel out of sorts. We should keep it simple, so let’s start with something like this:

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Industry: Publishing

Position: Author

Status: Just keep my mouth shut

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Industry: Music

Position: Mixer

Status: Out of the closet and out of work (more…)

If you read the story below, it makes perfect sense that a casting manager would be fired for not following the instructions of the director, who on this case is no less than Academy Award-winner Peter Jackson. But the hoopla over the outrageous idea of a casting agent looking for a certain “type,” even a certain type of skin color, makes little sense.

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Will this be the beginning of the end of Hollywood’s openly discriminatory hiring practices?

A casting manager working on The Hobbit has been sacked over allegations a British actress was turned down for a role in the film because of her skin colour. …

A crew member also reportedly published a newspaper advert calling for extras with “light skin tones”.

A spokesperson for Peter Jackson insisted no such instructions had come from the director’s Wingnut production company, and a representative has now confirmed a casting agent has been fired over the scandal.

The rep says, “No such instructions were given, the crew member in question took it upon themselves to do that and it’s not something we instructed or condoned… The crew member in question has been dismissed… It’s something we take very seriously.”

There is no more of an openly discriminatory industry than show business. Casting offices and agents look for particular “types” every day. This is what they’re hired to do. Discriminatory hiring practices based on looks, age, gender, and race are the norm in Hollywood, not the exception. You can be too fat, too old, too blond, too dark, not pretty enough, not buff enough, or just plain “wrong” for reasons that have nothing to do with talent and that no one can or will explain. This town is buried in stories of people who knocked the audition out of the park but were told they weren’t the right “type.” Which means they were qualified for the job, they just didn’t physically appeal to the boss or bosses; director, producers or a combination of both. (more…)

So some gay groups are upset over a photo the Wall Street Journal ran of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan:

It was also a picture we ran on Monday. It’s of her playing softball. The beef? That the shot is meant to provoke questions about her sexuality.

Gay and lesbian advocates, like Cathy Renna, believe it “clearly is an allusion to her being gay,” even though the paper never mentioned her orientation.

And that’s my point: The only time Kagan gets outed, is by gays. The bottom line: most of America doesn’t care who Kagan likes to cuddle with. In fact, most of America doesn’t even care about the Supreme Court period. The fact is, this so-called “whispering campaign” over Kagan’s sexuality wasn’t started by an average Joe or even an angry right wing preacher. It was launched by busy-body bloggers, mostly on the left, who have too much time on their hands and too much identity politics in their heads. My favorite line, for example, comes from a major liberal blog. In it, the writer says that Kagan’s friends say she is not gay. But adds: “And yet, the rumor persists.” (more…)

Reverse Discrimination, according to Wikipedia, is defined as, “the practice of favoring members of a historically disadvantaged group at the expense of members of a historically advantaged group.”  Since the 1964 Civil Rights Act when the phrase came into usage, it has been practiced in many different ways.  Some examples include employment practices and college admissions.  A more euphemistic way of saying reverse discrimination would be “affirmative action.”  However you say it, it is still discrimination plain and simple.

The United States Supreme Court tackled the issue in the seminal case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 US 265 (1978).  In that case, the Court found that race could only be one of numerous factors in determining admission to a university.  It stated that the University of California policy was unconstitutional, but that the policy used by Harvard was a valid type of affirmative action.  The result was that Mr. Bakke was admitted to medical school and became a respected physician. (more…)