Steve Pond's Blog, page 2044
December 10, 2019
Marie Fredriksson, Roxette Singer, Dies at 61
Marie Fredriksson, singer in the pop duo Roxette, died on Monday morning following a 17-year battle with cancer. She was 61.
“Time goes by so quickly. It’s not that long ago we spent days and nights in my tiny apartment in Halmstad, listening to music we loved, sharing impossible dreams,” Fredriksson’s partner in Roxette, Per Gessle, said in a statement. “And what a dream we eventually got to share!
“Thank you, Marie, thanks for everything,” Gessle continued. “You were an outstanding musician, a master of the voice, an amazing performer. Thanks for painting my black and white songs in the most beautiful colours. You were the most wonderful friend for over 40 years. I’m proud, honoured and happy to have been able to share so much of your time, talent, warmth, generosity and sense of humour. All my love goes out to you and your family. Things will never be the same.”
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Fredriksson was born in 1958 in the south of Sweden. She and Gessle met in the ’80s, and after their individual careers gained traction locally the two formed Roxette in 1986. Soon, the world took notice.
The duo’s crossover success came from hits like “It Must Have Been Love,” which was featured in the Richard Gere-Julia Roberts movie “Pretty Woman,” “Listen to Your Heart,” “The Look” and “Joyride.” Roxette sold more than 80 million records worldwide.
Fredriksson was first diagnosed with a severe brain tumor in 2002. Aggressive treatment was successful enough to allow her to return to touring in 2009. In 2016, her doctors advised her to stop.
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Fredriksson is survived by her husband Mikael Bolyos and two children Josefin and Oscar. Fredriksson’s management company, Dimberg Jernberg Management, said that services with “only Marie’s closest family present” will be held.
Read more about Fredriksson’s life and career from her Dimberg Jernberg Management obituary here.
Watch the official music video for Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” here:
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December 9, 2019
‘Wonder Woman 1984': New Posters Rep Huge ’80s Vibes, Somehow Make Fanny Packs Cool (Photos)
In case you missed it, alongside yesterday’s spectacular trailer for “Wonder Woman 1984,” Warner Bros. also released four spectacular new character posters for the film’s main characters. See them below right now.
The new images, done up in the same eye-popping, w-suggesting visual style as the one released a few months back, feature Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) and Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) accented by angular lines and bright colors that, presumably, suggest something as-yet unknown about what’s in store for them. Also, somehow, the Steve Trevor photo makes fanny packs seem extremely cool, which shouldn’t be possible in this or any other universe.
It all dropped Sunday during the “Wonder Woman 1984” panel at Comic Con Experience Brazil, attended by both director Patty Jenkins and Gadot. Read more about that here.
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First up, here’s a green-red-and-gold-accented Wonder Woman giving us another look at her slick new armor. The fact that her giant ’80s shoulder pads look intimidating and awesome would be shocking — if we weren’t already shocked that Steve Trevor’s fanny pack also looks awesome:
Next up, a very blue-green Steve Trevor looks pretty confused about something — we’re guessing it’s that the fanny pack he’s wearing makes him look dope instead of the “hopelessly dorky and, if we’re being honest, kind of creepy” vibe fanny packs normally emit. That should be less possible than bringing Steve back from the dead.
Also Read: Watch the First 'Wonder Woman 1984' Trailer Here (Video)
Here’s one of the film’s villains, Barbara Minerva, AKA Cheetah, whose smug smirk suggests she’s hiding a secret. Is her secret the answer to how on earth the Steve Trevor poster made a fanny pack (vomit) look awesome? Hopefully! Also, that cheetah-themed miniskirt and leather jacket combo rules.
Finally, here’s the film’s other villain, Maxwell Lord, accented by the color of money. (Green. We mean the color green.) We’re not saying he reminds us of any IRL 1980s business bros who might be really untrustworthy, but we can confidently predict he has a chain of hotels named after himself, and may or may not also be responsible for making fanny packs cool.
Jenkins co-wrote the script with Geoff Johns and David Callaham. Also appearing in the film are Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta, queen of Themyscira and Diana’s mother, and Robin Wright as Antiope.
“Wonder Woman 1984” is slated to open June 5, 2020.
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Colbert Uncovers the (Fake) Link Behind Trump’s Russia Collusion and the Golden Globes Female Director Snub (Video)
Stephen Colbert thinks the Donald Trump presidency is pretty unsettling, but on Monday’s episode of “The Late Show” he found a silver lining of sorts by linking some recent, falsehood-heavy Trump statements to a self-inflicted Golden Globes PR headache.
On Monday, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was heavily criticized after it announced nominations for the 2020 Golden Globes, and no women were nominated for Best Director. Meanwhile, the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, declared that the FBI had ample justification to investigate links between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, rejecting Trump’s baseless conspiracy theory that he was unfairly targeted.
After the IG’s report was released, Trump repeated that conspiracy theory in a statement, saying that the FBI investigation was an “an attempted overthrow” of the government.
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“So you’re saying the deep state was trying to overthrow your government when they started the Russia investigation in July of 2016, before you were elected?” Colbert asked during his monologue Monday night.
“That’s how deep this goes,” Colbert continued in his impression-of-Trump-accent. “They were trying to overthrow the government before I was even in it. That way, Barack Obama would no longer be in office to graciously allow a peaceful transition of power. I’m telling ya, I’m never gonna make that mistake.”
Colbert noted that “nothing Trump talked about today about the report is actually in the report; he is once again just naming an alternate reality he wants to exist. So on one level this is fun, and ‘ha ha ha.’ But it’s also really dangerous because why have an election if next Nov. 3 he can just say…” Colbert switched back into his Trump accent to add, “I just saw the election results. I won all 50 states, plus Manitoba. Thank you for your service, you patriotic beavers.”
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“Well, two can play at that game, sir,” Colbert said, then faced the camera directly. “Hey, did you hear what’s in the IG report? It’s much worse than any of us imagined. Trump confessed to colluding with the Russians to influence the 2016 election and stopping the Golden Globes from nominating any women for best director.”
Watch the whole clip below:
TONIGHT: How will Trump respond to the IG report that says the FBI opened a lawful investigation into Trump and Russia? By making things up. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/h0aNKeNVnD
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) December 10, 2019
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‘Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven’ Theater Review: Stephen Adly Guirgis Delivers the Funniest, Saddest Play of the Year
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ “Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven” is the funniest, saddest play of the year, with at least a dozen characters who go straight to your heart. This three-hour play, which had its world premiere Monday at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company, features 18 actors under the direction of John Ortiz, and Guirgis wraps them all in a riveting, often rousing “Grand Hotel” framework.
Only it’s not a grand hotel or even a Motel 6. These characters live in a New York City women’s shelter on the verge of collapse, and only occasionally is their collective plight relieved by help from a priest (David Anzuelo) with a violent past and three social workers who are much less than perfect. Never is “Halfway Bitches” more ambivalent than its portrait of this supporting trio. There’s the Nigerian immigrant (Neil Tyrone Pritchard) who runs the place and pleasures himself on the side, the chief social worker (Elizabeth Rodriguez) who drinks too much, and her assistant (Molly Collier), just graduated from Columbia University and brimming with white female privilege. They could all be better at their job, but each of them is the only thing standing between compromised dignity and a life on the streets for these homeless women.
Guirgis gives these three characters, and others, big speeches about important topics. Usually in plays and musicals (think “The Inheritance” and “Jagged Little Pill”), these talks on progressive ideas are there to rouse the liberal audience, even when the words spoken have little to do with the story going on around them. Many of the speeches in “Halfway Bitches” are also set pieces, but they’re always organic, and they work because the cast, under Ortiz’s direction, is uniformly brilliant. Also, Guirgis has established an environment that makes such unhappy talk the most normal thing in the world. And most important, what’s said on stage is often funny as hell.
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There’s obviously much said about homelessness and racism in “Halfway Bitches,” but also the treatment of military veterans (Liza Colon-Zayas’s Sarge is a lesbian who fought in Iraq), trans rights (Esteban Andres Cruz’s Venus wears a dress with defiance), morbid obesity (Kristina Poe’s Betty is so ashamed of her body she avoids showers), drug addiction (Andrea Syglowski’s Bella shoots up while her young baby cries), spousal abuse (Greg Keller’s husband demands to see his battered wife), teenage abandonment (Kara Young’s Melba and Sean Carvajal’s Mateo don’t have a chance), mental illness (Wilhemina Olivia-Garcia’s Sonia clearly belongs in a hospital, not a shelter), life on the down low (Victor Almanzar’s janitor leads a triple life), and euthanasia (Patrice Johnson Chevannes’ Wanda is ready to check out despite an illustrious past in the theater).
Never has the stage at the Atlantic Theater Company been more alive with action. Ortiz even uses the aisles and the space in front of the stage to set several scenes.
Playing two friends desperate for money and respect, Benja Kay Thomas and Pernell Walker can’t deliver a line without giving it a loud comic spin. With their complicated weaves and gold loop earrings (costumes by Alexis Forte), Thomas’ Queen Sugar and Walker’s Munchies border on a popular cliché from the movies. These two actors prevent Queen Sugar and Munchies from being anything but real women. Ditto Elizabeth Canavan’s Rosie, the sort of Irish character we feel we’ve seen before but now delivered with self-deprecating humor.
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On the comedy front, Guirgis doesn’t mess around. “Halfway Bitches” opens with one of the shelter’s daily therapy sessions, which in this instance is also something of a variety show, and the transsexual Venus is soon on the chopping block. The 25-year-old Taina (Viviana Valeria) doesn’t like the way fellow residents belittle her mentally disturbed mother, and Sarge thinks Venus should take her “ugly, non-passing fake she-male junkie ass” out of a shelter designed for women.
Guirgis doesn’t give these characters one-liners. He stuffs each mouth with a fusillade of explosives. Typically, Guirgis’ plays begin loud and funny. “Halfway Bitches” is no exception, but here the pathos begins to sift in a little earlier than usual, although the theatrical fireworks are never far behind. A plot device involving a live goat, stolen from a city project up on Riverside Park, runs the gamut. It’s outlandishly ridiculous and ultimately downright pathetic.
“Halfway Bitches” is a female “Iceman Cometh” for the 21st century, but watching it doesn’t feel like five hours — or even three. You may feel you’ve had just enough time to get to know, and care about, these women. Guirgis ends with a simple line that all New Yorkers hear half a dozen times a day on the street. After seeing Guirgis’ play, you will never look at that homeless person quite the same way.
“Halfway Bitches” is a coproduction with LAByrinth Theater Company.
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Rich Battista Quit as Imagine Entertainment CEO After Clashes With Staff: ‘A Real Hothead’ (Exclusive)
Rich Battista quit Imagine Entertainment after a short but stormy tenure as CEO in which he clashed with co-founder Brian Grazer and won a reputation for being “combustible” and a “hothead,” a knowledgeable insider told TheWrap.
The former Time Inc. president and CEO was hired in late August to oversee the film and TV production company founded by Grazer and Ron Howard in 1986 — but quit just nine weeks later after numerous contentious encounters which included pounding on a desk in frustration and suddenly walking out of meetings and not returning, according to one insider.
“He’s a real hothead,” the insider said. “Short temper. Short fuse. Women here found him incredibly aggressive…. He’s just got a really bad temper.”
Another individual with knowledge of the situation disputed the characterization of Battista’s personality and said his departure was a mutual decision. News of Battista’s exit came late last week over what the second insider called a difference of opinion over the best way to manage Imagine’s business divisions in seeking strategic growth opportunities.
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Imagine’s Ron Howard and Michael Rosenberg
Battista declined to comment for this article.
Imagine declined to comment beyond a joint statement issued by Grazer and Howard: “Rich Battista has left Imagine Entertainment. We thank Rich for the time he spent working with us and the contributions he made, and we wish him the best going forward.”
But the former Time and Fox top executive was clearly not a fit with the culture of Imagine. According to one insider, Battista would get up in the middle of meetings and not come back and even yelled at employees seemingly out of nowhere, and on one occasion hit his fists on the table and shouted, “I’m the f—ing CEO.”
As CEO, Battista was meant to run the business side while Grazer and Howard continued to oversee the creative side of the company, whose recent projects include Howard’s “Pavarotti” documentary, the ABC sitcom “The Conners” and the CBS All Access series “Why Women Kill.” Rosenberg is a longtime executive who is now co-chair of the company.
Battista was brought in during a period of growth for the company and in the wake of a $125 million investment led by the Raine Group in 2016. Howard and Grazer needed someone who could operate the company’s seven different divisions, raise capital and expand into territories like China.
According to both insiders, Battista was frustrated by his lack of control at a company smaller than he was accustomed to running. Most of Imagine’s 100-person staff didn’t report to Battista, and he had no dominion over the creative aspects of the business.
The final straw came when Battista called Howard early in the morning in early November to tell him he was resigning, according to the insider. Despite attempts to iron out differences with Imagine co-chairman Michael Rosenberg and Grazer, Battista exited in early November and took no severance. His last official day was Nov. 30.
Prior to Imagine and Time Inc., Battista spent two years as CEO of Mandalay Sports Media, which created, acquired and invested in businesses and content across the sports media landscape. For roughly 20 years before that, Battista held several senior management roles across Fox, specifically in leading its portfolio of cable networks. As president of Fox’s National Cable Networks, he oversaw FX, National Geographic Channel, Speed Channel and Fox Deportes.
“He was supposed to strategize global expansion, get us into China,” the individual said. “He didn’t speak the language. He didn’t do his homework. It was just bizarre.”
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TheWrap’s Short Film Showcase: Recovering Veterans, Looney Tunes and More | Video
The directors of an eclectic array of six short films gathered earlier this month at The Landmark in Los Angeles for TheWrap and Shorts.TV‘s Short Film Showcase, where the filmmakers discussed their inspirations and the challenges behind their work.
Joining TheWrap’s awards editor Steve Pond for a Q&A panel were filmmakers Chris McCaleb (“15 Minutes at 400 Degrees”), Bonnie-Kathleen Ryan (“Real.Live.Girl.”), Jeremy Merrifield (“Balloon”), Asher Jelinsky (“Miller & Son”), Pete Browngardt (“Curse of the Monkeybird: A Looney Tunes Cartoon”), and Mohammad Gorjestani (“Exit 12”).
The panel followed a screening of the shorts introduced by Linda Olszewski, vice president of global acquisitions for Shorts.TV, which sponsored the showcase with TheWrap.
Watch the full video above.
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‘Greater Clements’ Theater Review: Judith Ivey Carries the Very Heavy Load of a Son
It wouldn’t be a Samuel D. Hunter play unless the dwindling populace of a small town faced economic extinction. And it wouldn’t be a Samuel D. Hunter play unless a parent and child were at each other’s throat.
Hunter’s latest, “Greater Clements,” had its world premiere Monday at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse, and the playwright returns to two familiar subjects with mixed results. While the tiny mining town of Clements, Idaho, deserves to die (regardless of what Hunter tells us repeatedly over the course of his three-act three-hour play), the mother and son he presents are more than worth the long visit. Let’s begin with the play’s better half, centering on Maggie and Joe.
Judith Ivey and Edmund Donovan give two of the year’s best performances. Ivey brings her naturalistic gifts to the role of a 60-year-old single mother who loves but can never comprehend the mentally challenged adult son who lives with her. Joe would be several handfuls for any parent, and a friendly neighbor (Nina Hellman) and a slightly fascist cop (Andrew Garman) believe he should have been institutionalized years ago.
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Joe brings to mind Lennie from “Of Mice and Men,” and Donovan gives the character a determined dignity that also allows for plenty of bad behavior. Hunter outdoes Steinbeck here by giving Joe visions from an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” They are truly nightmarish, as well as over-the-top theatrical, and Donovan delivers them with a real Grand Guignol flourish. When Joe is at his most vulnerable, everyone around him pulls away, except Maggie, who invariably draws him even closer despite the threat of violence. Maggie’s memories of finding her homeless son on the freezing streets of Anchorage, Alaska, are heartbreaking. She went there to rescue him, but also didn’t want to rescue him. Ivey embodies that maternal-survival conflict to perfection, and her long monologue regarding this Alaskan ordeal shows Hunter at his best and most visceral.
In his 2014 play, “Pocatello,” Hunter focused on the final days of a small diner in a town that had been swallowed up by K-Mart, McDonald’s and Home Depot. The town in “Greater Clements” isn’t really a town anymore, its citizens having voted to decertify the place. Hunter’s story gets a little cockamamie. As presented, that decertification was an act of vengeance against all those rich people from California who bought up property to go skiing and build McMansions in Clements. But don’t these hordes of rich people need their trendy cafes and boutiques? I recommend that Maggie close up her mining museum and open a Starbuck’s. Everything will be fine. Different, but fine.
We could feel sorry for Maggie, whose family goes back at least a century, but then her ancestors took the land from indigenous people. Hunter doesn’t tell that evolutionary story. Instead, he gives Maggie an unexpected visitor from the distant past, an Asian-American man named Billy (Ken Narasaki) who wants to rekindle their high school romance. He also brings his granddaughter Kel (Haley Sakamoto), who just happens to be an expert on Japanese internment camps in the area.
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Under Davis McCallum’s direction, Ivey and Donovan take very different approaches (hers subtle, his grand) to deliver their very different characters. McCallum’s direction, however, can’t compensate for the weaker writing that doesn’t bring to life the other characters. Billy is impossibly perfect, and Kel is a snarky teenage character that the playwright lifted from his earlier plays “Pocatello” and “The Whale.” The neighbor and the cop register as little more than devices to tell the story, and rather irritating devices at that.
The world premiere production of “Greater Clements” is marred by Dane Laffrey’s awkward set. A large bedroom lowers and ascends to replicate the elevator in a mine shaft, enhanced by Fitz Patton’s clanging sound design. To make the set function, five poles are needed, and each of them obstructs the audience’s view of what’s going on. I watched one of those poles as, more than once, an actor hidden behind it delivered his or her big speech.
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How ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ Went Back to ‘Smallville’
(WARNING: The following story contains spoilers from Part 2 of The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths”)
“Crisis On Infinite Earths” paid a visit to Kansas during Part 2 on Monday, finally giving fans their “Smallville” reunion. It may have been a brief scene, but it finally allowed viewers to see Tom Welling return to his old role as a pre-Superman Clark Kent, picking up him and Lois Lane (Erica Durance) some 10 years later.
But for fans who were hoping they would finally see Welling put on the famous blue tights and red cape (for those that don’t remember, “Smallville” famously had a “No Flights. No Tights” rule), they were probably left a bit disappointed.
Though some shots of newspaper clippings featuring Welling’s days as the Man of Steel could be seen, he reveals to a recently-revived Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) — who is on his own mission of eliminating every single Superman in the multi-verse — that he gave up his powers. The fact that is was Cryer’s version of Luthor, and not Michael Rosenblum, who played the supervillain on “Smallville,” was played for laughs when Kent didn’t recognize him (you may remember that Rosenblum had some issues with coming back).
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“The Tom Welling/Clark Kent that we all picture, when we think of him, is Clark on the farm,” Caroline Dries, showrunner for “Batwoman” (whose crossover episode it was), said at a press screening at The CW’s Burbank office. “It felt very 10 years ago, in a great way. To us, it just felt natural, that that was his natural environment.”
Dries also teased that there was a larger reason for having Kent give up his life as Superman, but wouldn’t divulge any further because it will factor into the “Crisis” endgame, which won’t be until January. “It felt incredibly necessary in the moment,” she said.
The “Smallville” scene takes place in the same episode that also introduces Brandon Routh’s “Kingdom Come” version of Superman, who will play a much more prominent role in the crossover as one of the seven Paragons that The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) says the team needs to find in order to stop the Crisis.
Marc Guggenheim, the showrunner for “Crisis,” said they never contemplated having all three Supermen — Tyler Hoechlin also stars as his version of Superman that has existed in the “Arrowverse” up until this point — share the screen.
“We never wrote that. We wanted Brandon at the Daily Planet, but we wanted Tom on the farm.”
“Crisis On Infinite Earths” continues Tuesday night with Part 3 at 8 p.m. ET/PT
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Why This Indie Musician Isn’t Scared of California’s AB-5 Law ‘Crashing’ the Music Business (Guest Blog)
The Southern California music community entered freak-out mode last month after an influential music business blogger and entertainment lawyer sounded an apocalyptic alarm about Assembly Bill 5 — a new law, spearheaded by Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez, that goes into effect on January 1, 2020, and may impact independent contractors across all industries in the state.
The purpose of the legislation, which passed an Assembly vote in Sacramento and was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last September, is to protect workers from being taken advantage of by companies that misclassify them as independent contractors, instead of employees, to avoid providing employment benefits. But according to Ari Herstand, an indie singer-songwriter and author of “How to Make It in the New Music Business,” AB-5 is poised to destroy California’s booming music industry. After attending a presentation from attorney Ned Menoyo of EEM Law, Herstand published a blog post declaring, “California’s Music Economy Is About to Crash,” which was widely shared with major concern in musician and songwriter social media groups just before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Well, I’m an independent musician regularly gigging all over the state and hiring other players for gigs and recording sessions, so I read the bill myself, and then I spoke to Gonzalez’s office about the bill, and here is my take: I am not worried.
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Herstand and Menoyo share the interpretation that the law will hit indie artists the hardest, because if venues need to provide benefits for any musician they hire, they’ll stop hiring them, or band leaders will be stuck having to treat their session players as employees. “How the law is written, if you want to hire a bass player to play your gig for $100 you have to put that bassist on payroll, pay unemployment taxes, provide benefits, follow labor laws, get workers compensation insurance, deduct taxes, work with a payroll company, W-2 that bassist as they now legally will be designated your employee,” Herstand wrote.
But as far as I can tell, musicians/singers/performers’ status as independent contractors is largely protected by AB-5, even though the existing language and interpretation is more subtle than the bill simply listing “musicians/singers/performers” as jobs that still fit the state’s definition of a contractor.
There are two sections in the bill that detail what factors determine continued classification as a contractor. The first is the ABC test:
(A) The person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact.
(B) The person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.
(C) The person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.
My band, Greg in Good Company, passes A and C with flying colors — no venue tells me how to play my songs or what songs to play, and I’m customarily engaged in the music trade — but B is a little trickier. Is live music going to be considered the usual course of an L.A. club, bar or restaurant’s business if they regularly host performers? My immediate thought was, no, their usual course of business is selling alcohol or food.
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My thought aligned with Gonzalez’s, who told me, “If an establishment is a restaurant or a bar, they likely are in the business of selling food and drinks, not music.” This reading was also supported by Chris Alamo, principal fiscal and policy analyst at the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, who told the vice president of SoCal musicians union AFM Local 7 the same thing.
Of course, I still understand why it’s a major cause of concern. Laws are open to interpretation in the courts. And Gonzalez cannot guarantee that a judge will interpret her own law as she would, which is why she used the word “likely” in the above quote. I wholeheartedly believe Gonzalez and the other lawmakers who worked on this bill meant well, but I’ll also quote the English writer Samuel Johnson, who famously said, “Hell is paved with good intentions.” And Menoyo sees a highway to hell forming on the horizon.
“I think it’s a long shot to say that a venue that normally provides musical entertainment is not providing music in the usual course of their business, no matter what else they sell,” the concerned lawyer told me in an email. “Even so, that’s a limited aspect to this. In the independent music industry, people are constantly hiring each other to play, record, mix, produce, and songwrite, etc. It goes well beyond being paid for a public performance by a venue.”
“My reading of the law is that each time someone pays another person for services, unless they meet A, B and C, they will become that person’s employer and have to abide by wage and labor laws, withholding taxes, etc,” he continued. “This would create an onerous burden on your average independent musician and much less take home pay.”
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There is another section of the bill to consider, as well. In order for a profession to still be considered an independent contractor in the state of California, it must meet the requirements previously referenced ABC test, or (not and) all of the following:
(A) The individual maintains a business location, which may include the individual’s residence, that is separate from the hiring entity. Nothing in this subdivision prohibits an individual from choosing to perform services at the location of the hiring entity.
(B) If work is performed more than six months after the effective date of this section, the individual has a business license, in addition to any required professional licenses or permits for the individual to practice in their profession.
(C) The individual has the ability to set or negotiate their own rates for the services performed.
(D) Outside of project completion dates and reasonable business hours, the individual has the ability to set the individual’s own hours.
(E) The individual is customarily engaged in the same type of work performed under contract with another hiring entity or holds themselves out to other potential customers as available to perform the same type of work.
(F) The individual customarily and regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment in the performance of the services.
Once again, I firmly believe all those factors apply to me as an independent musician. Furthermore, when AB-5 lists specific “Professional services” exempt from employee classification, the language includes graphic designer, grant writer and fine artist.
The dictionary defines fine art as, “creative art, especially visual art whose products are to be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative, aesthetic, or intellectual content,” as well as, “an activity requiring great skill or accomplishment.” To me, that also sounds like it includes making and performing music. And the fact that “graphic designer” is specifically mentioned leads me to believe that “fine art” doesn’t have to be visual in nature.
Gonzalez, however, made it clear there was no intention to lump musicians in with fine artists– whatever the hell a fine artist actually is. “We did not draft the ‘fine artist’ language with the intention of including musicians, songwriters, and producers,” she told me. “There is no definition for the term provided for the bill, which gives courts and agencies more range in their interpretation for how the term applies.”
Menoyo does not expect a judge to ever apply the term to musicians, songwriters and producers, and suggested lawmakers add “non-union music professionals” to the “professional services” contract section of the bill. When I asked Assembly member Gonzalez if she thought that addition to the bill could resolve the issue at hand, she answered, “No.”
“This does not make sense in terms of the bill. By definition, all union musicians already are employees with protections. This language would actually encourage those employers who traditionally use unionized musicians to use musicians they could classify as independent contractors. The attorney who suggested that tweak may not be a labor attorney and not understand the implications of that suggestion. But, that language is a nonstarter. We are, however, happy to work with independent musicians to get to the appropriate language.”
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That last sentiment also put my mind at ease. Lawmakers are still working on refining the flawed legislation even after its passage. They are aware of the issues, and want to be made aware of more, so they can settle on new language to be added by early 2020.
“Additional clarity needs to be made for employment arrangements in the music industry,” Gonzalez told me. “We were unhappy that a compromise between the industry and worker representatives in the industry couldn’t be reached by the end of last session and have encouraged a quick resolution this year between the stakeholders. We will continue to encourage input from all concerned parties. Please contact our office directly to provide feedback.”
So it appears that the state will not be rushing to enforce this law, as it pertains to the music industry, at least, until the kinks are worked out. AB-5 affects provisions in the Labor Code and Unemployment Insurance Code, which are enforced by the Department of Industrial Relations — specifically the Labor Commissioner’s Office — and the Employment Development Department. As a result, enforcement is largely dependent on workers filing complaints against employers. That means independent musicians themselves must file a complaint, and considering they actively want to remain independent contractors, I don’t see a high likelihood of that happening. But anything is possible.
Gonzalez explained, “A worker who believes they’ve been misclassified under the law can file a claim with these departments to recover lost wages, apply for unemployment insurance benefits, etc. Under AB 5, the Attorney General and specified city attorneys can also enforce the provisions of the bill by seeking injunctive relief, which means stopping the employer from misclassifying the worker. It’s important to note that an individual who has been misclassified under the law is not held liable. The onus is on the hiring entity to classify individuals that work for them appropriately under the law.”
I don’t think independent musicians or the various businesses that contract them in California were a target of the bill, but rather a complication lawmakers are still struggling to sort out. I believe they will, and I can’t imagine the catastrophic crackdown on indie musicians that Ari Herstand and Ned Menoyo fear. But don’t just take my word for it. If you have concerns, share them with Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s office. She and her team are ready to listen.
While my take on AB-5 is much more optimistic, I still appreciate those sounding the alarm. They are playing a necessary role, because everyone who makes a living as an independent contractor should be tuning in to this conversation, now significantly amplified by Herstand and Menoyo. They truly are two of the best advocates California’s independent musicians have speaking out on our behalf, and though I am not alarmed, I am still grateful, and look forward to reading AB-5 2.0 in 2020.
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Warner Bros. Calls Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s ‘Richard Jewell’ Legal Claims ‘Baseless’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and editor Kevin Riley are threatening the producers and filmmakers of Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” over its accusations of “malicious fabrications” in the film, according to a legal demand sent Monday that was obtained by TheWrap.
The letter from the law offices of Lavely & Singer accused the filmmakers as acting “recklessly” and “engaging in constitutional malice” due to the film’s portrayal of the newspaper and AJC reporter Kathy Scruggs (as played by Olivia Wilde). The paper demands that the filmmakers issue a public statement that acknowledges they took dramatic and artistic licenses with the story, and that a prominent disclaimer is added to the film.
“We’re simply asking that the producers issue a statement acknowledging that some events were imagined for dramatic purposes, and that artistic license and dramatization were used in the film’s portrayal of events and characters,” Riley said in a statement to TheWrap. “In addition, we’re requesting a disclaimer to that effect be added to the film’s credits.”
On Monday afternoon, Warner Bros. issued a statement saying the film was based “on a wide range of highly credible source material.”
“There is no disputing that Richard Jewell was an innocent man whose reputation and life were shredded by a miscarriage of justice,” the statement read. “It is unfortunate and the ultimate irony that the Atlanta Journal Constitution, having been a part of the rush to judgment of Richard Jewell, is now trying to malign our filmmakers and cast. ‘Richard Jewell’ focuses on the real victim, seeks to tell his story, confirm his innocence and restore his name. The AJC’s claims are baseless and we will vigorously defend against them.”
Riley and the AJC first challenged the accuracy of Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” ahead of the movie’s premiere at the AFI Film Festival last month. At the time, Riley had not seen the film ahead of its world premiere, but he has since seen the movie and reiterates many of his initial complaints in the legal demand.
The AJC said that the movie suggests that Scruggs, who died in 2001, is written as someone who gets story tips in exchange for sexual favors with an FBI agent and behaved unethically and recklessly. Riley initially said that there is no evidence to suggest that Scruggs engaged in such content, and in the legal letter, Riley adds that there is no claim in Marie Brenner’s Vanity Fair article on which the film is based that says she unethically traded sex for information.
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“For a film that purports to be about the besmirching of someone’s reputation to proceed to smear Ms. Scruggs and the paper she reported for in this matter is highly offensive,” the letter reads. “It is also highly defamatory. This false portrayal of AJC’s supposed reporting methods is extraordinarily damaging to the AJC and its reputation.”
“Richard Jewell” is the story of a security guard at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta who was wrongfully accused of being a terrorist in connection with a bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) had discovered a backpack filled with explosives and was initially deemed a hero for helping to evacuate attendees and alert law enforcement, but he was later considered a suspect before finally being cleared.
The paper stresses that its reporting was legally adjudicated as being “substantially true at the time they were published” and that the AJC even sought retraction in Brenner’s Vanity Fair piece of other statements that said the AJC’s reporting was false.
It further goes on to state that the AJC was pivotal in leading to the exoneration of Jewell, saying that the FBI’s version of the facts would have been logistically impossible for Jewell to have made. The letter said that the story pointing out inconsistencies in the FBI’s investigation was run on the front page of the paper and helped to shift the direction of the FBI’s investigation. However, the letter also said the film omits this detail and “substitutes that true fact with a false and fictional narrative in which Mr. Jewell’s lawyer (not the AJC’s reporters) is depicted unearthing the logistical problems.”
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The letter continued, saying that the filmmakers met with the paper and with an editor who worked with Scruggs, but that information the filmmakers gleaned from the meeting went against the movie’s established narrative was not considered.
“It is evident the meeting was a mere pretext and that any information that deviated from or was inconsistent with the film’s planned thesis was ignored,” the letter stated. “Such conduct evidences purposeful avoidance of the truth, supporting a finding of constitutional malice.”
Eastwood directed the film from a screenplay by Billy Ray based on a magazine article by Brenner. “Richard Jewell” opens in theaters Dec. 13.
Read the full letter from the AJC here.
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