Union Actors Say Website That Posts Their Birth Dates Costs Them Jobs

Actors’ employment opportunities capped by web site that reveals their birth dates.  A new law passed by the California legislature to keep the information off the Internet Movie Database (www.Imdb.com) was placed on a temporary hold by a court that said the law violated the First Amendment.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, Counsel for SAG-AFTRA, the union for TV and movie actors, says the ruling reduces actors’ chances to work.

“That information is essentially pushed in front of a casting director. They don’t even have to look for it.  It’s front and center there on (the actor’s) Imdb profile. And the result is that instead of being able to portray a range of say five of ten years, now they are only cast for things that are the exact age that they are…it’s not something people in any other industry have to deal with.”

Crabtree-Ireland says that since Imdb.com charges actors a subscription fee for the right to change information on the site, such updating their resumes and photos, allowing actors to withhold their dates of birth is not a First Amendment violation.

Crabtree-Ireland was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning Show with Doug McIntyre and Leeann Tweeden.