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Revealing an actor's age is illegal? IMDb website sues California

Mach said:
Well, actor age on IMDB in itself is not really worthy of that much attention, I agree. Its the broader privacy issue that it may full under, that I am concerned about.


How do we figure out where to draw any of the subjective lines we draw? Through debate, seeing what works, industry weighing in, etc. Have you read in labor law how to classify a contractor vs employee? Its like throwing darts with a blindfold in practice...that's just one example. We have attorneys because there is no obvious black and white line on most things because life is analog. Remember also that questioning someones personal information during a job interview, even if that information is publicly available elsewhere, can open you up to discrimination legal action...so as an employer I stuck to the approved script. You don't ask about their private life or ethnicity, origin, etc. (Its been a while forgive if I am wrong on some of those).

But if most people don't value their privacy these days, then most sensible restrictions on allowing some measure of privacy will never see the light of day. Just as many countries have far fewer freedoms socially, and economically, than we have in the U.S., they simply get use to them, and grow up knowing no other way. That's a sad state of affairs IMO.
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Well having some experience in being a contractor and hiring contractors, it's pretty simple. If the person is given an agreed amount to do a job and what the end result is to be, but is not instructed on how he or she is required to produce the end result, and the person has full right to accept or refuse the job, that is a contractor. If the person is told how, when, and in what manner he/she is to do the work and has no option whether to do the job or not, that is an employee no matter how he/she is paid.

But common sense tells us an employer has to have some way to determine whether he/she is hiring somebody under age and certainly after the person is hired, having the person's birth date is pretty essential for insurance and retirement purposes. Bottom line, the fact that birth certificates are a matter of public record makes a law that prohibits one company from publishing the age of celebrities pretty darn silly.
 
IMDB should get into more specifics.................... like how many pounds of "Bondo" Cher and Madonna have to apply to their faces before making public appearances.
 
"By 28 you're playing mommy roles" says the 38 year old action heroine in an incredibly popular film with two sequels in the works.
 
Mach said:
I can't stand hearing "credit report", too bad we don't have that as well!

My anecdote is from an IT manager.
Being productive, they wrote some scripts to detect when people encounter certain errors, and if so, it would send some info to the program which would prepare it for IT manager statistics to review what issues people are having, but in some cases it would help them automatically. Pretty neat, routine stuff in the U.S. This had nothing to do with productivity/etc., no keylog, legit stuff.

He implemented this in Germany. Now keep in mind this is on the companies private network, at work. Someone detected what this IT script was doing and they were told it violates German law, and it cannot be used. I can't imagine!

We have entire business models built on such things, that go way, way beyond that. I have no idea what Windows 10 send to the mothership, you can't kill Cortana, it's crazy stuff IMO. Sometimes I want to go dark :)
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This is a subject I could rant about for hours, but I'll spare you except to say:

"I'm with you, brother"! :cheers:
 
AlbqOwl said:
Well I hope you are referring to the thread topic and not the thread itself. :)

But seriously, I think California should be able to do whatever they wish in such matters so long as it doesn't affect the rest of us. Though restricting that particular website would deprive me of finding out some information on my favorite stars but oh well. I have no constitutional right to such information. In other words, what happens in California and stays in California is their business and not mine.

But. . .I do see this as a dangerous precedent that others might use to make such as this a national law and expand it to anything negative about anybody. And that would be a restriction on my First Amendment rights.
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I would think that if the site is not hosted in California, there would be nothing they could do about it.
 
braindrain said:
My opinion these actors need to grow up.

It's not even age discrimination its appearance discrimination. If you look the way the people casting for a part that is what matters. It's why some actors can play collage or high school parts into their late 20s and others can't. Just more silliness from spoiled put of touch with reality Hollywood
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That is a good point.

Gary Coleman was much older than the roles he played at the beginning of his career, so I wonder how that fits in here.
 
nota bene said:
Here's a 2011 article: In Hollywood, Actors Still Lie About Their Age - ABC News

Here's a partial list of current stars busted for fibbing (but it doesn't include Margot Robbie):

Celebs caught lying about their age
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:lamo :lamo :lamo

bear with me while I get control over myself and let you know why I am hysterical......

OK....catching my breath....

Would this law extend to DATING WEBSITES and you could sue anyone who lied about their age in their profile.....:lamo

My God, the precedent ...

be truthful under penalty of law for ;

lying about your age
lying about your WEIGHT
lying about your height
lying about your marital status
Posting an old pic (1yr or older)

The internet dating industry would be turned on its head!!!
 
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d0gbreath said:
They aren't "citing somebody's age." They are advertising it to the interwebz. Having a career in the public eye should allow for some privacy.
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Really? If a celebrity states their birthday on a talk show should that then exempt from any privacy?
 
Well, this is retarded. I do believe there should be certain limits as to what people may display and report about others, but age is no such limit.
 
Mason66 said:
They also put heavy make-up on her for the later scenes.

There is nothing wrong with that.
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I didn't say there was. But it's foolish to deny that female actors, after they pass the ingénue and hot tamale stage, struggle to find work. To quote one, “In television and film, you have a certain amount of time... 'if you don’t get it right by being a star of a TV show or a film by the time you’re 40 — then when the clock strikes 41, supposedly, you can forget about being successful. You’re put out to pasture, and then you can come back when you’re Betty White.'” Aging Out: Hollywood's Problem With Women Over 40 | The Huffington Post

Article goes on to say:

Part of the problem is that few leading roles are written for women over 40, especially in film. Typically, in movies, women in their 40s and up are someone’s mom or somebody’s wife in the background. Factor that in with committing the unthinkable sin of aging, and you have the perfect formula for actresses’ aging out of a very fickle and youth-obsessed business.

Risa Bramon Garcia, a director, casting director, and teacher, says, “The problem happens when writers and producers don’t see women as being sexual after 40 — by sexual I mean complex human beings who are attractive and appealing, vital and powerful, in their 40s and 50s and beyond.” Aging Out: Hollywood's Problem With Women Over 40 | The Huffington Post

I think we do tend to see male actors as attractive, appealing, and vital in their 40's and 50's and beyond. George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, Will Smith, Matt Damon are a few examples. Denzel at any age, ditto the divine, irreplaceable Alan Rickman.
 
Mason66 said:
I would think that if the site is not hosted in California, there would be nothing they could do about it.
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Unfortunately anti discrimination laws are a federal matter issue so the legality of the California law gets rather murky there. But the fact was there was a vote that went that way. And if the court upholds it, it opens a whole new can of worms in that regard. If you can't post the age of a person, what else becomes illegal to post?

Here at DP I use a screen name instead of my real name and I don't post my age in my profile. So all of you can guess how old I am or deduce it from clues in my post, but I do have a certain amount of anonymity here. But those who know my full name have complete ability to search the public record to learn a whole lot about me of which age is only one component. We really have no privacy re out basic identities and that in a way is a pretty healthy thing.

If this law is upheld, it could open a whole new can of worms that could have some pretty awful ramifications.
 
Mason66 said:
Really? If a celebrity states their birthday on a talk show should that then exempt from any privacy?
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If the celebrity is female, I'd take that age with a few grains of salt.
 
nota bene said:
I didn't say there was. But it's foolish to deny that female actors, after they pass the ingénue and hot tamale stage, struggle to find work. To quote one, “In television and film, you have a certain amount of time... 'if you don’t get it right by being a star of a TV show or a film by the time you’re 40 — then when the clock strikes 41, supposedly, you can forget about being successful. You’re put out to pasture, and then you can come back when you’re Betty White.'” Aging Out: Hollywood's Problem With Women Over 40 | The Huffington Post

Article goes on to say:

Part of the problem is that few leading roles are written for women over 40, especially in film. Typically, in movies, women in their 40s and up are someone’s mom or somebody’s wife in the background. Factor that in with committing the unthinkable sin of aging, and you have the perfect formula for actresses’ aging out of a very fickle and youth-obsessed business.

Risa Bramon Garcia, a director, casting director, and teacher, says, “The problem happens when writers and producers don’t see women as being sexual after 40 — by sexual I mean complex human beings who are attractive and appealing, vital and powerful, in their 40s and 50s and beyond.” Aging Out: Hollywood's Problem With Women Over 40 | The Huffington Post

I think we do tend to see male actors as attractive, appealing, and vital in their 40's and 50's and beyond. George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, Will Smith, Matt Damon are a few examples. Denzel at any age, ditto the divine, irreplaceable Alan Rickman.
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But the reality is, nobody owes anyone a job. Fair or not, if people don't want to hire you, you don't deserve the job. Welcome to reality.
 
nota bene said:
I didn't say there was. But it's foolish to deny that female actors, after they pass the ingénue and hot tamale stage, struggle to find work. To quote one, “In television and film, you have a certain amount of time... 'if you don’t get it right by being a star of a TV show or a film by the time you’re 40 — then when the clock strikes 41, supposedly, you can forget about being successful. You’re put out to pasture, and then you can come back when you’re Betty White.'” Aging Out: Hollywood's Problem With Women Over 40 | The Huffington Post

Article goes on to say:

Part of the problem is that few leading roles are written for women over 40, especially in film. Typically, in movies, women in their 40s and up are someone’s mom or somebody’s wife in the background. Factor that in with committing the unthinkable sin of aging, and you have the perfect formula for actresses’ aging out of a very fickle and youth-obsessed business.

Risa Bramon Garcia, a director, casting director, and teacher, says, “The problem happens when writers and producers don’t see women as being sexual after 40 — by sexual I mean complex human beings who are attractive and appealing, vital and powerful, in their 40s and 50s and beyond.” Aging Out: Hollywood's Problem With Women Over 40 | The Huffington Post

I think we do tend to see male actors as attractive, appealing, and vital in their 40's and 50's and beyond. George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, Will Smith, Matt Damon are a few examples. Denzel at any age, ditto the divine, irreplaceable Alan Rickman.
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This is true in a general sense, yes. Even Sean Connery qualifies in this group, and I see him as being clearly older than dirt.
 
radcen said:
This is true in a general sense, yes. Even Sean Connery qualifies in this group, and I see him as being clearly older than dirt.
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He is now. But that voice! He's one of the few that most women, in my observation, agree is/was hot.
 
nota bene said:
He is now. But that voice! He's one of the few that most women, in my observation, agree is/was hot.
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He does have an awesome voice, but Sam Elliott's voice is better, IMO. I know women who would pay extra for his voice to be their GPS voice and have said they'd follow him anywhere. :lol:
 
Cameron said:
I don't really care. I don't see what business I have knowing somebody's age, or why it matters, unless they are running for president. Ageism is a problem in many industries, not just in Hollywood.
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None of that is really the point. The question is whether the government can censor a website that posts what is presumably public information about actors' ages. What is the compelling public interest in secrecy? I can't possibly see any state interest other than in enforcing standards for accuracy, and then a website should only need to make legitimate efforts to verify the information, with allowances for honest mistakes.

How about the government decides that websites cannot post information about lawsuits involving public and/or private companies because the companies believe it's unfairly prejudicial and hurts business? Why shouldn't the government be allowed to make that decision?
 
radcen said:
He does have an awesome voice, but Sam Elliott's voice is better, IMO. I know women who would pay extra for his voice to be their GPS voice and have said they'd follow him anywhere. :lol:
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Hmmm, this could be a chick thing, but consider Richard Burton, Jeremy Irons, Morgan Freeman, Sean Connery, Liam Neeson, Vincent Price, Alan Rickman and Dennis Haysbert (the Allstate guy).

 
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