Posted on 09/09/2014 8:16:16 AM PDT by george76
Mallory Musallam filed a class action complaint against CBS Broadcasting, CBS Corporation and the retiring late night host’s Worldwide Pants Inc. for herself and everyone who has ever been an intern on the show. "Named Plaintiff has initiated this action seeking for herself, and on behalf of all similarly situated employees that also worked on The Late Show with David Letterman, all compensation, including minimum wages and overtime compensation, which they were deprived of, plus interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs," says the jury demanding filing in New York Supreme Court
...
Claiming that the production company and CBS intentionally wrongfully classified the interns that work on the CBS late night show, Musallam says their actions were and are a violation of New York State labor law.
(Excerpt) Read more at tv.yahoo.com ...
Dick Cavett made the rounds when Carson past away. One of his stories was that he was writing for Carson, and having an off day, he came up with some pretty lame jokes.
Carson stopped by the office, and subtly let Cavett know that the jokes stank, and he expected better of Cavett.
Maybe Letterman's crew has a lot of off days, especially since they're all leftists, and are loathed to shoot any of the fish in the liberal barrel. That doesn't leave much of the social/cultural/political pie left as grist for the comedy neurons to spark with.
So you need a big pool of writers to find one that can write on any given day.
Is he still banging interns uglier than his wife?
I heard that Leno or Letterman have or had dozens of writers. Sounds insane for a one hour show with a 5-minute monologue.
Rule # 276
Never trust ANYONE who abuses the help......
Yeah. Same here.
Me, too. Should have known what a fraud he was when he had Mel Blanc on his show sometime in the late '70s or early '80s.. Now tell me -- how could a supposedly professional interviewer like Letterman strike out so dismally with THE Mel Blanc? A man I had, in the late '70s, personally seen speak to a large standing-room-only crowd of college students who practically would not allow him to leave the stage, he was so beloved?
That stupid clown Letterman obviously didn't even know who he was talking to, and it was so sad to see Mel Blanc trying to entertain Letterman, who was the swine with a pearl cast in front of him. I should have recognized THEN that Letterman was a loser, but ... it took me another decade! Oh well ... glad to know I wasn't the only FReeper who used to enjoy his show, Eagle. And I sure do agree -- this intern lawsuit couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!!! {^)
... And never trust ANYONE who can't even successfully interview Mel Blank, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Porky Pig, etc. etc. etc.
Came across this the other day. Letterman was such a wanker ... wonder why I didn't see it at the time? Mel Blanc, on the other hand, has only gotten more cherished with time.
A friend of mine interned for the Letterman Show. Score tickets for me. He never complained. Was a funny guy... now teaching in college.
I blame the little blue pill
Actually, it’s testimony to the power of a blinking sign in the gallery. Once a sheeple always a sheeple....
Wha??? Is he a victim of internment??? (snort!!!)
Oopsie. It really isn’t any different in the entertainment biz, interns are there for the training, not the glory, and certainly not for slave labor. I was already cutting Dave more slack than I should - old time’s sake, I guess - when he popped up with that Bristol Palin / Alex Rodriguez “joke”. Whoever wrote that one for him cost him bigtime.
“Their claim for back pay after the fact has absolutely no merit.”
In the United States, parties making employer or other contracts can’t “agree” to things that violate the law. You can’t “agree” to forgo overtime after eight hours. It is still owed you, and the employer must pay you.
In the case of these bogus entertainment industry “internships,” you can’t “agree” to fetch coffee for free. The employer is breaking the law. You must be compensated.
This intern is going to win, and win big. The Fox “Black Swan” intern case set the precedent.
There is a difference between and employer pressuring an employee to work overtime without pay (or without extra pay) and an unpaid intern claiming that her internship was actually a paid position, just without a paycheck. I hope this little liar loses her case (someone who agrees to work for free in return for learning about the job and then sues to be paid for that work is a liar). I also hope no one will ever hire her for anything other than the register at McD's. Your word is your bond, and I have no patience with people who use the courts to renegotiate for a better deal after the fact.
“an unpaid intern claiming that her internship was actually a paid position, just without a paycheck. “
“Claiming?” It isn’t just a “claim.” It is indisputable that her internship was a paid position for some people at the company. Other people got paid to fetch coffee and answer phones; she didn’t. That’s illegal.
And it doesn’t matter if she “negotiated” to do it for free. Nobody, not an employer, not an employee, has the power to ignore labor laws through “negotiation.”
Letterman loses big here, and the greedy SOB deserves to.
LOVE that Mel Blanc interview.
Well, Mel at least. Letterman couldn’t have cared less. What a ham-fisted dweeb.
Mel Blanc did the best he possibly could.
Thanks for posting - what a gem.
We read this very differently. Women in the oldest profession get paid generously for the services that Intern Monica Lewinsky provided for free, but that does not give Monica a valid claim on back pay.
Unpaid internships often include work for which others are paid, and the interns agree in the hope of learning marketable skills. Eliminating those internships (which your approach will do) will make it harder for those people to develop the skills to land a paying position. Creating labor law in this manner will quickly hurt those who would otherwise benefit from internships. As for fetching coffee, someone who tolerates much of that in an internship that is supposed to build professional skills should learn a very useful lesson on the sort of abuse to avoid.
We will never agree, and I will never support frivolous lawsuits. The fact that some activist judge or jury rules in favor of a frivolous claim does not give that claim validity.
“Unpaid internships often include work for which others are paid, “
Wrong. Including work for which others are paid in the scope of “internships” in the state of New York is illegal. It violates labor law. They. Broke. The. Law.
Why are you talking about “creating labor law” instead of acknowledging EXISTING LABOR LAW ON THE BOOKS? That’s why her lawsuit isn’t “frivolous.” The law is on her side.
And your dismissing her by saying she should “learn a useful lesson?” What lesson? Shut up and take it when employers violate labor law? She didn’t break the law — CBS did. How about teaching Letterman/CBS a useful lesson by making them PAY HER WAGES FOR THE WORK SHE DID, AND THEN FINING THEM to discourage these unscrupulous business practices?
The actual law doesn’t seem to say that http://statutes.laws.com/new-york/lab/article-19 There is no clear mention of internships.
An interpretation crafted by bureaucrats created those rules for internships, and I disagree with that interpretation. http://www.labor.ny.gov/workerprotection/laborstandards/workprot/minwage.shtm http://www.newyorkemploymentattorneyblog.com/2010/05/department_of_labor_issues_gui.html It’s not what the law calls for, and NY legislators could pass such a law if they wish. They chose not to.
It’s harmful to create additional impediments to internships as a path to professional education. It’s even more harmful to create law through bureaucratic fiat. The law should say what it means and mean what it says. I used to hire what I called “interns” but for pay (actually fairly generous pay - $20 or more an hour for college students who met my standards), but that was my choice, and I got the best, based on resume, grades, and interviews. Those who didn’t meet my standards were often not worth paying, not even minimum wage. Would you deny them a chance to learn on the job what they hadn’t learned in the classroom? My interns did real work, just like unpaid interns, but because they were interns, all of their work was checked even more thoroughly than we checked the work of professionals.
The anti-intern interpretation that forces employers to pay interns or not accept them at all is bad policy that will hurt interns, and bad law because it is not as far as I can tell in the letter of the law. Note: I avoided NY because of their laws, so I may have missed something, but I think my point is still valid.
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