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Hollywood assistants are in open revolt. Here’s why
DNC vetted then the Los Angeles Times ^ | Nov 2,2019 | By Stacy Perman

Posted on 11/02/2019 9:48:09 AM PDT by NoLibZone

Four years ago, Christina Mondy arrived in Hollywood like many, with big dreams. At 23, hers was to become a showbiz writer. And like many, the Connecticut native was told in order to get her foot in the door, she first had to pay her dues as an assistant.

After an unpaid internship at a boutique management and production firm, Mondy landed a job as a full-time assistant at a major talent agency. But instead of pushing her that much closer to realizing her writing ambitions, Mondy says, “It all came crashing down on me.”

Over the course of nearly a year, Mondy worked 50-plus-hour weeks, she said, making $11.25 an hour. Barely getting by, she had to defer her student loans. She said she was subjected to constant verbal abuse by a boss, and that an agent had her stake out a comedy club for weeks to see if a comic he‘d noticed on Twitter showed up.

She said she wasn’t reimbursed for gas and was discouraged from seeking overtime pay. When she complained to HR about her treatment, Mondy said, she was told, “’Maybe this industry isn’t right for you.’” After making a scheduling error, she said, she was fired.

Being an assistant in Hollywood has long ranked among the most thankless jobs in the industry. Subjected to grueling hours, low pay, few benefits or protections and the vagaries of monomaniacal bosses, assistants have largely toiled in silence because it was considered a golden ticket to advancement — but no longer.

The plight of Hollywood assistants gained currency last month after “Chernobyl” screenwriter Craig Mazin and John August, writer of “Aladdin,” devoted a portion of their podcast, “Scriptnotes” to the subject.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: hollywood; liberalhypocrisy; nlz
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To: Gay State Conservative

It seems these people have made a few bad decisions, e.g., choosing an expensive private college, accumulating a 100k student loan debt, moving to a high cost of living city, on and on.


21 posted on 11/02/2019 10:11:02 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: Bob434

Had a roommate in college who had connections in Hollywood. To even join the union, you had to know someone, or know someone who knew someone. He was able to join the union in NYC and made huge (for me at the time) money for just a few hours of work shooting advertisements. I think he did stuff like focusing cameras and clicking the board at the beginning of the shoot.

Once you got into the union, it didn’t mean you got work. Work was handed out based on seniority, but you did get the chance to work.


22 posted on 11/02/2019 10:11:21 AM PDT by hanamizu
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To: Trumpet 1
Drew68 is omitting the idea that the creeps who run Hollyweird are a bunch of creeps.

That goes without saying. I don't expect to find men of decency and integrity running the studios in Hollywood. There never has been.

23 posted on 11/02/2019 10:14:06 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: cgbg

Shhhhhh! We don’t want liberals coming here spreading their poison.


24 posted on 11/02/2019 10:16:15 AM PDT by Wm F Buckley Republican
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To: NoLibZone

What can government do to address this crisis?


25 posted on 11/02/2019 10:16:24 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: Gay State Conservative
met Harvey Weinstein. And that lucky gal got to watch him take a shower while she drank fine wine.

nice mental image - the gatekeeper. You can have anything you want in Hollywood, all you have to do is whatever he wants.

26 posted on 11/02/2019 10:16:34 AM PDT by atc23
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To: Rashputin
Ever since Hollywood began that's been code for, "doesn't give good head" or "isn't Ho enough".

You're a studio bigwig. There's 20,000 beautiful girls outside your door looking for a job. 19,900 of them will f*** you for it.

That's Hollywood. Always has been. Always will be. The keys to fame and fortune beyond your wildest dreams have never been free.

27 posted on 11/02/2019 10:17:23 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: Drew68
A 50 hour work week? Oh, the horror!

Right. . .or go start your own business and expect to work at least twice that. . .and forget vacations cause there ain't no stinkin vacations. If I were to actually take a vacation, I would only be sitting at the beach crying, thinking about all the money I'm losing.

28 posted on 11/02/2019 10:17:31 AM PDT by McBuff (To be, rather than to seem)
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To: captain_dave

Yep for all the preachy egalitarianism it spews the actual industry is one of the most hierarchical there is. It is grossly hypocritical in nearly everything it promotes. The revelations of the me too movement within it came as no surprise to anyone paying attention. Anti gun, environmentalism, anti capitalists and on and on. On almost any issue the industry is often one of the worst offenders.


29 posted on 11/02/2019 10:17:41 AM PDT by xp38
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To: ProudVet97

$11.25 an hour? That’s not bad. This is where you have three roommates in an apartment so you could afford to pay your rent. A small price if you are trying to chase your dream.


30 posted on 11/02/2019 10:19:33 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: Bob434

She needs to consult with Harvey Weinstein! That might do the trick (no pun).


31 posted on 11/02/2019 10:19:40 AM PDT by icclearly
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To: NoLibZone
I had a job back in my early twenties. Fun job but...

They were slow to pay overtime, encouraged you to work off the clock "to get ahead", suggested things that you could do "on your own" to smooth out your production, discouraged any complaining that might upset management, etc., etc.

I quit.

32 posted on 11/02/2019 10:20:21 AM PDT by skimbell
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To: NoLibZone

“Deirdre Mangan, a writer on the CW’s “Roswell, New Mexico,” who is working with Alper to improve conditions for assistants, recalled being $100,000 in student debt and only being able to take her first job as a writer’s assistant 10 years ago because she lived with her rich boyfriend and didn’t have to pay rent.”

Typical Hollywood whore. If she were male she would be in the coal mines, which is far more respectable work.


33 posted on 11/02/2019 10:20:53 AM PDT by GOP Congress
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To: Drew68

That’s what everyone kept telling Andi in “The Devil Wears Prada.” At least the fashion industry drones got some expensive swag and unwanted gifts. It doesn’t sound like the Hollyweird worker bees get any good freebies.


34 posted on 11/02/2019 10:21:12 AM PDT by Cecily
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To: MinorityRepublican

Better than what I made as a floor crew member.

I made a little over minimum wage but it is the best job I ever had in terms of loving what I did.


35 posted on 11/02/2019 10:26:29 AM PDT by wally_bert (Your methods were a little incomplete, you too for that matter.)
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To: NoLibZone

If you face this kind of thing in any industry then what you should do is find a way to become the boss of your own business.


36 posted on 11/02/2019 10:27:19 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: hanamizu

Best paying work I ever had was at the rate of $1200/hr. I completed it in 5 minutes and made $100.


37 posted on 11/02/2019 10:28:48 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: NoLibZone

obviously they should for a union ...


38 posted on 11/02/2019 10:37:39 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: NoLibZone

My 20s sucked too, when I was a young electrical engineer. Bottom of the totem pole, no friends, no influence over anything, brief periods of accomplishment surrounded by months if not years of frustration, disappointment, and loneliness.

It’s called “paying your dues,” and almost everyone goes through it. At least I didn’t have to sleep with anyone to get a job or a raise, but I guess that’s one of the things a good education gets you.

The few who don’t go through it because of extraordinary talent or luck usually blow it because they don’t learn to value what they have; they throw it away because they don’t realize they may not be able to get it back. One of the big things paying your dues teaches you is to fight to keep what you have.


39 posted on 11/02/2019 10:41:41 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrats' John Dean])
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To: NoLibZone

Hollywood is known for taking advantage of the young, innocent and decent.

Is this really surprise they play the young for fools?

Hollywood’s a well-dressed hellhole - a place Weinstein and all fit in easily... Their only ‘religion’ is abortion on demand - for obvious reasons.


40 posted on 11/02/2019 10:46:17 AM PDT by GOPJ (Ted Kennedy killed a girl and they had no problem defending him. - - Tucker Carlson)
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