Posted on 07/24/2002 2:05:11 PM PDT by Timesink
Edited on 04/29/2004 2:00:55 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
BURBANK, California (CNN) -- Actor Rob Lowe will be leaving NBC's popular TV show "The West Wing" after the end of the coming season because, a top trade magazine reports, he isn't pleased with his salary.
Although an official statement from John Wells Productions and Warner Brothers Television said the move was made "amicably," Daily Variety is reporting that Lowe was disenchanted over the unwillingness of producers to raise his $75,000-an-episode salary, even as they hiked co-star Martin Sheen's pay to $300,000 an episode.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Lowe will now move on to anchoring Meet The Press.
75K a week for a 16 week season? 1.2 mil a year? If it were me I'd need triple that to work with that guy who portrays a President.However - Lowe is already working in the middle of that hellhole Hollywood and has probably already compromised his beliefs for a paycheck so - 1.2 mil a year aint too bad.
Do you think it has anything to do with the home video (from a few years ago) of him, a friend, and an underage woman having sex?
-PJ
Because the show will have run its course as Democrap propaganda and will follow Bill Maher into ratings oblivion?
What a non-story!
Apparently it's not the money itself, it's just that over the summer every other cast member's salary has been increased (Martin "I Can Still Outdrink My Sons!" Sheen got a 300% increase), while Rob's still getting the same salary he was getting from the very beginning and they utterly refused to even negotiate with him. Here's the original story from Variety:
Posted: Tue., Jul. 23, 2002, 9:45pm PT
In the latest behind-the-scenes drama involving the Warner Bros. and NBC series "The West Wing," Rob Lowe is ankling his role as White House deputy communications director Sam Seaborn.
Barring some unforseen twist, his character will be phased out in an episode to air next March, the result of an exit stategy that has already been agreed upon by both parties.
Sources on both sides paint the pending exit as amicable but clearly, money is at the heart of it. The prime reason, said sources, is that Lowe was stung by the unwillingness of the John Wells/Aaron Sorkin show and WB to even discuss raising his per-show price of $75,000. This comes right after they tripled Martin Sheen's salary to $300,000 per episode and last season doubled the salaries of Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer and Bradley Whitford after a protracted salary stalemate that ended when the quartet committed to a seventh season, each getting $70,000 an episode.
That left Lowe the only cast member to not get his first season salary bumped up. The studio feels the show has evolved into Sheen's show, surrounded by an ensemble on equal footing. Sources on the show point out that all of the stars are Emmy-nominated except Lowe, who petitioned in the lead actor category, which is TV's toughest ticket.
They were unwilling to even open pay hike talks with Lowe's reps, CAA and Bernie Brillstein. That left Lowe feeling hurt, after believing that his turn would come. Lowe is expected to wing his way back to features or topline another series. If he does the latter, Lowe, who got one Emmy nom and two Golden Globe nominations during his "Wing" run, will probably command a higher salary.
The show's makeup has changed since Lowe signed on for the pilot as the regular cast's most recognizable name. Back then, he cut a higher price quote that had been established in a previous Paramount TV deal. Sheen at the time was only supposed to serve as a diversion to the drama's core players on the White House staff. Sheen's participation grew while Lowe's scenes have progressively diminished.
Sources on both sides doubted this was another salary posturing exercise, and that the show would survive his exit, even if it does come as WB is working out a new license deal with NBC.
If Hollywood is a business, than why can't actors be considered as much a businessman as the producer? He is a huge name in the business, it is entirely possible for him to wind up on another hit series or hit movie. What he is doing takes guts.
Apparently, Lowe's people-meter scores (like the ones the networks also use to judge people's reaction to political speeches, etc.) aren't making it - and he's being prima-donna-ish about it. Too bad. Them's the breaks. Break it up, break it up, break it up, BREAK down...
Michael
No. Everyone knows about that. It hasn't hurt since, and likely won't in the future.
Michael
Diversion as in, don't upstage the real president, because he's a swell guy. Now that there's a new sheriff in town, the show increases Sheen's presence in an effort to mark the differences between the reel administration and the real admininstration.
Lowe's character is patterned after George Stephanopoulos…
He’s going to have trouble finding good roles, now that he’s typecast as a gay man.
Sam Seaborn: found dead in Ft. Marcy Park.
Most of a torn up fingerprintless suicide note found in his briefcase.
$1.2 million would be enough to get me to work on West Wing. But then the cost of shots to control my awful Sheen-Estevez allergy would take up at least half of that money.
LOL. Lowe is a long-time big lib Dem. He was the guy who got in trouble when he let someone videotape him having sex with a minor during the 1988 Democratic Convention.
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