Don't do the Crime (Scene Investigation) if you can't do the time
CBS canned two of the stars of one of my favorite programs, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, for not showing up for work this week in a salary holdout. I'll miss Jorja Fox and George Eads if they're not around this coming season -- okay, I'll miss Jorja; George's pretty-boy Nick Stokes was always the least interesting link in the CSI chain, IMHO -- but I hope they don't let the door smack them in the tuchus on the way out.
Both actors still have three years remaining on their seven-year, $100,000 per episode contracts. If that kind of money and security was good enough when they signed the deal, it should be good enough for the duration of the contract. I have zero respect for anyone who attempts to blackmail (strong word, but that's what it is, folks) his or her employer by withholding contracted services. If your word to the network doesn't mean anything, why should you expect theirs to you to be any different?
When CSI started, I was already quite familiar with Jorja Fox. She'd appeared as a regular some years back on a decent show called Missing Persons (an unsuccessful forerunner of the current smash hit, Without a Trace), did a stint as a Secret Service agent on The West Wing, and flashed briefly across the silver screen as Guy Pearce's ill-fated wife in Christopher Nolan's excellent Memento. I'd never seen George Eads before CSI that I can recall. But certainly, both of them owe their household-name status and considerable bankrolls to the success of CSI. I can appreciate the desire to make more money, but as Super Chicken used to say, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred." Or more appropriately in this case, "You knew the job only paid a hundred grand a week when you took it, Jorja and George."
The bottom line is, do what you say you'll do. If you say you'll work for $100K a week, do the work. If you want to stick up the network for bigger coin when your next deal is due, have at it. Get all you can get. But if they're paying you today according to what the contract stipulates, then hold up your end of the bargain. And shut up about it.
Both actors still have three years remaining on their seven-year, $100,000 per episode contracts. If that kind of money and security was good enough when they signed the deal, it should be good enough for the duration of the contract. I have zero respect for anyone who attempts to blackmail (strong word, but that's what it is, folks) his or her employer by withholding contracted services. If your word to the network doesn't mean anything, why should you expect theirs to you to be any different?
When CSI started, I was already quite familiar with Jorja Fox. She'd appeared as a regular some years back on a decent show called Missing Persons (an unsuccessful forerunner of the current smash hit, Without a Trace), did a stint as a Secret Service agent on The West Wing, and flashed briefly across the silver screen as Guy Pearce's ill-fated wife in Christopher Nolan's excellent Memento. I'd never seen George Eads before CSI that I can recall. But certainly, both of them owe their household-name status and considerable bankrolls to the success of CSI. I can appreciate the desire to make more money, but as Super Chicken used to say, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred." Or more appropriately in this case, "You knew the job only paid a hundred grand a week when you took it, Jorja and George."
The bottom line is, do what you say you'll do. If you say you'll work for $100K a week, do the work. If you want to stick up the network for bigger coin when your next deal is due, have at it. Get all you can get. But if they're paying you today according to what the contract stipulates, then hold up your end of the bargain. And shut up about it.
SwanShadow was randomly pounding the keyboard at 12:50 PM
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