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Actress Sues IMDb For Revealing Her Age
Alain Williams writes "An actress has sued Amazon.com for more than $1m (£639,000) after her age was posted on its Internet Movie Database. She says revealing her age on the site will lose her acting opportunities. From the article: 'The lawsuit states: "If one is perceived to be 'over-the-hill,' i.e., approaching 40, it is nearly impossible for an up-and-coming actress, such as the plaintiff, to get work as she is thought to have less of an 'upside,' therefore, casting directors, producers, directors, agents-manager, etc. do not give her the same opportunities, regardless of her appearance or talent."' So is her career dependent on lies?"
That's the same reason I was forced out of pr0n. They couldn't believe the stamina this 45 year old had. Kept breaking the women.
Trolling is a art,
Step 1. Someone figures out who the acress is.
Step 2. A quick lesson in the "Streisand Effect".
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Well I wasn't going to hire her because she's getting old, but now that I have seen the ease with which she sues people, she's on the top of my list!
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
how old is she? No, wait, don't post here, or we'll get Slashdot sued!
Approaching 40 .. from what side?
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
"If one is perceived to be 'over-the-hill,' i.e., approaching 40, it is nearly impossible for an up-and-coming actress, such as the plaintiff, to get work as she is thought to have less of an 'upside,' therefore, casting directors, producers, directors, agents-manager, etc. do not give her the same opportunities, regardless of her appearance or talent."
I'm pretty sure this statement only applies to the porn industry, which will narrow down the guesswork by a lot.
another case of Job Security through Obscurity.
Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Demi Moore, Susan Sarandon, all still working and I could easily go on. Hell, even Cloris Leachman still gets roles. Being over the hill has absolutely nothing to do with casting.
Unless this unnamed actress is involved in the "adult film industry," I don't think she has a point.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
FYI, it's against US Employment law to ask any applicant any age related question other than to verify they are 18 or over. Since an actor is essentially a Contractor and not an employee, they are hired on the merits of their qualifications -- once again age has nothing to do with it, only their appearance and ability to do the work.
So please, feel free to elaborate how the act of not disclosing her age to the public at large is "lying"
I'm gonna sue IMDB for not posting any of my info, making it impossible for me to get any jobs!
All careers in Hollywood are based on lies. Having myself attempted to break into commercial voice acting, it was often a question as to whether you (as a voice actor) should include your mugshot. The specialty of the woman who taught my classes was the "teenage girl" part. Why not use an actual teenage girl? Because she was a much better actor in her 40's and 50's, yet can still sound like a teenager. Is it a lie for her to audition for teenager parts? Would she have gotten the audition (just the chance to tryout for the part) if she included a picture of herself as a 40-year-old?
Keep in mind that Bart Simpson wouldn't have the voice he does if Nancy Cartwright hadn't come in to audition for Lisa's part. Does that make Bart's voice a lie?
From a certain point of view... ;)
Yes you can shout "Streisand" and make fun of the futile effort all you want, but she should be allowed control of her own privacy even if she's going about it the wrong way.
Really? First Amendment right out the window, huh? Forget slander and libel, you can't even publish the TRUTH if someone perceives it as damaging?
Should be great for those in politics. When your opponent points out something you said or did, which will just slaughter you at the polls, just go ahead and sue him for damaging your career.
"Is her career dependent on lies?"
You do understand the nature of acting right?
Not touching that with a ten foot pole!
Normally in the US the record of your name and time and place of birth are facts available in public records. You're not allowed to discriminate in hiring based on age unless there is a legit reason. For example, a young actor might legally be denied a role playing an elderly character without any violation of hiring law.
Actually when you're hiring somebody you're required to collect basic information to identify them and determine that they are eligible to work, and that information must include their birth date. So rather than being illegal, as you suggest, it is in fact legally required that you ask. Although that is usually done in the written part of the process.
I wanted to be angry about this. I even had a post written up about how the judge had better eviscerate this woman and her lawyer for such a stupid lawsuit. Then I went against all Slashdot policies and read the article. It is not quite what we think.
She is definitely mad about her age being disclosed, and that is probably the basis for the damage amount -- but her actual claims are about how they got her age. She is claiming that they got her birthdate from a subscription to IMDBPro and is claiming breach of contract and invasion of privacy.
I am not commenting on the merits of that claim, by the way, but it is certainly different than "somebody disclosed a fact about me, sue them!" Much as it pains me, perhaps the calls for evisceration have to be put temporarily on hold. Meh. I guess I have to find a patent story and call for evisceration there instead.
The BBC article is light on the details to the point of distorting the issue. There's a better write-up at Paid Content, which also has a link to the complaint. It's not just about ageism; the Jane Doe alleges that IMDb pulled her birthdate from her credit-card information and then published it, ignoring takedown requests.
No statement is true, not even this one.
It's Nicole Bilderback, born June 10, 1975
Obvious publicity stunt.
She's an unknown. If she wasn't, she wouldn't be pulling this pathetic publicity stunt. So you wouldn't recognize her name anyway.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I read this article yesterday and if I understand correctly, the problem isn't that her age was revealed, but that the personal information she used when signing up for the site was used to get that information. If true, this seems to be a complete misuse of her personal information. I think ultimately, Amazon will have to provide evidence that they obtained this information from another source or convince the judge that it was within their rights according to the site's user agreement to use the information in this manner.
Wow, trolling in the summary?
My money is on http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1169837/
The person in question's imdb profile only goes back to 2003 (see comment below about the Korean Harold article). Also Nicole is still getting work and her age has also been listed in her Wiki profile for some time.
Too late... even slashdot can't compete with the gossip junkies in studiously wasting their free time in pointless activities:
http://theblemish.com/2011/10/actress-suing-imdb-revealed/
(Yes, I know this makes me look like the kettle calling the pot black...)
The article barely touches on the real problem here - she paid for an "IMDb Pro" account and Amazon used that info to pull an "above the line" credit report on her. These "above the line" reports contain: name, mother's maiden name, date of birth, sex, address, prior addresses, telephone number, and the Social Security Number and have no legal protection. That's where they got her age from.
So she basically paid Amazon and they used the billing information for purposes other than which she intended. That's the kind of shit that makes me never want to pay for anything on the net - and only use cash in real life too.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I googled that name with "sues amazon" and one of the links had "woman sues sex toy manufacturer for damaged vagina".
Actually it is just missed place. They tagged it censorship but it should be privacy or YRO.
The claim is that they got the data from her credit card info when she subscribed to the service. That has some nerd/tech ramifications in the privacy category.
Not as wack-a-doodle off the nerd track as the story about the stock holders trying kick out Murdock from News Corp. That was pure finance.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
"Her scene in "Big Momma's House 2" and "Tropic Thunder" was deleted."
Sound like its way to late for her to worry about her career being over.
And who says they can't be hot as hell? There is a reason that we have the word MILF in our vocabulary folks, that is because a confident woman that knows her way around the bedroom and takes care of herself can be every bit as hot as the bambi bimbette. Personally having tried both? Give me the MILF as bambi tends to be fiddly and fumbly and not really comfortable or knowing what to do, whereas the MILF will ride your ass like a rollercoaster.
sure bambi might score you a little more status when you walk into a room, but when it all gets down to brass tacks? The MILF will know every trick in the book and will make sure you and she both have a damned good time.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I think it's reached the point where she needs to come out as a lesbian, you know, after agonizing over it for weeks. Then she'd at least get a spot on Ellen.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The Internet Archive has a variety of snapshots of her profile page... and sometime between 22 Oct 2007 and 08 Jan 2009, her date of birth changed from 16 Jul 1978 to 16 Jul 1971.
Her Facebook profile and website's contact page list her permanent residence in LA... but the voicemail number on her contact page has a Houston area code, 713.
The W-9 form merely looks to match a name with a tax ID. DOB isn't a must-answer question. In fact, given anti-age discrimination statues in the US, it's really more of a "can't ask"... not that it stops prime contractors from asking. Since they aren't in a position to ask, independent contractors (eg. actors) aren't required to tell the truth.
Luke, help me take this mask off