Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week signed state Sen. Kevin Murray's (D-L.A.) Senate Bill 184, which will raise the surety bond talent agencies must deposit with the labor commissioner from $10,000 to $50,000. Sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild, the new law is designed to help protect performers from suffering financial losses when their talent agency goes out of business or declares bankruptcy.
SAG approached Murray about authoring the bill after the union received numerous complaints from actors about defunct agencies that claim an inability to repay overdue wages, leaving actors without legal recourse. Murray, an entertainment attorney and former talent agent at the William Morris Agency, believes raising the bond talent agencies are required to give the state before setting up shop will provide actors some insurance against potential losses. This marks the first time the bond has been raised since 1986.
Murray told Back Stage West that wages lost due to an agency's financial woes affects primarily middle-class working actors and extras. "There are a lot of people in Los Angeles who are just working every day to try to make a living," he said. "Often they're represented by smaller agencies, and if there's a bad time at the agency, those artists who did work and are owed money can be left holding the bag."
Murray added that he isn't concerned with catching or penalizing agencies with questionable ethics. "I'm less interested in learning about the shadiness of the agent as I am worrying about those who really go under," he said. "I actually don't believe there's a whole bunch of shady agents who run away with the money. Although I'm sure that happens, I think that this can be a cyclical business for an agency, especially small ones."
The senator is also confident the law could be adopted by other states and eventually go to Washington.
"I suspect that [places] like New York, Chicago, and Nashville, where there are numbers of actors working, would be the first to take it on. But it clearly could go nationwide."
Karen Stuart, executive director of the Association of Talent Agents, a nonprofit trade association comprising more than 100 talent agencies, said its board of directors decided not to oppose SB 184 after SAG and Murray demonstrated the gravity of the problem.
"The last thing the ATA wants is for an actor not to be paid for the services they rendered. We, of course, did not do anything to oppose the bill," she said.
Stuart emphasized that members of ATA have not been involved in cases of withholding actors' pay. Nevertheless, she says, meeting the new bond requirement could be difficult for ATA members.
"It's frustrating because we know that it will end up costing our members more money, and it wasn't our members that caused the problem, but that's what happens. Sometimes a few people ruin it for everybody," she said. "If it wasn't such a critical issue, we'd probably want to oppose a bill that would cost my members more money."
SAG's deputy national executive director, Pamm Fair, echoed Stuart's sentiments in a statement released Monday. "While the vast majority of agents are law-abiding advocates for creative artists, the occasional flight-by-night companies have too often left SAG members holding the empty bag.We applaud Sen. Murray for championing this cause on behalf of entertainment industry workers in California," she wrote.
SAG President Melissa Gilbert worked closely with Murray last year in amending the Advance Talent Service Act passed in 1999, which prevents talent agencies from charging actors advance fees for headshots, coaching, and other services.
Sen. Murray has also drafted several bills awaiting the governor's signature that would impact California's entertainment industry: SB 58 is designed to entice producers of films and television series with a budget of at least $500,000 to shoot in Los Angeles; SB 1032 would illegalize videotaping movies while in the theatre; and SB 1506 seeks to prevent Internet piracy of music and movies.
The new law, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2006, will not apply to cases previously reported to SAG.