Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Disneyland performers file petition to form labor union
ANAHEIM, Calif. | Performers who help bring Disney’s beloved characters to life at its Southern California theme parks filed a petition Wednesday to form a labor union.
The workers include parade performers, character actors and support staff at Disneyland and an adjacent theme park, Disney California Adventure. More than two-thirds of roughly 1,700 eligible workers signed the petition to seek an election through the National Labor Relations Board, the workers said, noting that a vote will likely be held in May or June.
At a news conference in Anaheim, which is home to the two theme parks and the Downtown Disney shopping and entertainment district, workers said they also asked The Walt Disney Co. to recognize the union they are calling “Magic United.”
Several workers said they love helping create a magical experience for Disneyland visitors. But they said they grew concerned when they were asked to resume hugging patrons after returning to work during the coronavirus pandemic and they face certain challenges, including injuries from costumes, erratic scheduling and a lack of clear communication from management.
Mai Vo, a 37-year-old performer who has worked for Disney for two decades, said she wore black contact lenses as part of a costume and that they stained her eyes gray. She also was paid less for that job than someone who played a similar role but who was in a union, she said.
“I love my job, but I know that we all deserve better,” Vo said. “I am confident that by standing together, we will be strong and be able to advocate for positive change.”
Most of the more than 35,000 workers at the Disneyland Resort, which includes the theme parks, already have unions. Parade and character workers announced their plans to unionize in February under Actors’ Equity Association, which represents theatrical performers at Disney’s Florida theme parks.
In a statement Wednesday, Disney officials said: “We support our cast members’ right to a confidential vote that recognizes their individual choices.”
Union membership has been on a decades-long decline in the United States, but organizations have seen growing public support in recent years amid high-profile contract negotiations involving Hollywood studios and Las Vegas hotels. The NLRB, which protects workers’ right to organize, reported more than 2,500 filings for union representation during the 2023 fiscal year, which was the highest number in eight years.
Disney has a major presence in Anaheim. Disneyland, the company’s oldest park, was the world’s second-most visited theme park in 2022, hosting 16.8 million people, according to a report by the Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM.
In California, Disney’s cleaning crews, food service workers, pyrotechnic specialists and security staff are already unionized. The company has faced allegations in recent years of not paying workers a livable wage for Southern California, despite raking in profits. Wage issues have even wound up in the courts.
Parade performers and character actors earn a base pay of $24.15 an hour, with premiums for different roles that can vary widely, workers said. Until January, the base pay was $20 an hour.
The effort to organize character and parade performers in California comes more than 40 years after those who play Mickey, Goofy and Donald Duck in Florida were organized by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union traditionally known to represent transportation workers. At that time, the Florida performers complained about filthy costumes and abuse from guests, including children who would kick the shins of Disney villains such as Captain Hook.
Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity, said she was confident the California workers would win the election through the NLRB, the federal agency that protects workers’ rights to organize.
“They just want to be paid fairly, to have a more humane scheduling system, to know that they are safe on the job, to have clear and respectful communication at work.” she told reporters while flanked by more than a dozen Disney workers wearing blue T-shirts with union slogans.
Shantall Segura, a 29-year-old character performer, was among them. She said she worries she might fall in slippery shoes after it rains, or soak her feet while walking through puddles on uneven ground.
Parade performer Courtney Griffith, 26, said her coworkers are frequently injured by ornate or heavy costumes and developed a rash after donning one particular costume but were told to keep wearing it. She said the costume was finally shelved after a manager tried it on and developed a rash, too.
“I would like to work here as long as possible. This is my dream job,” Griffith said. “We’re all experiencing similar issues and our management is not being given the resources by the company to help us.”
Hugh Grant says he took ‘enormous sum’ to settle suit
LONDON | Hugh Grant accepted “an enormous sum of money” to settle a lawsuit accusing The Sun tabloid of unlawfully tapping his phone, bugging his car and breaking into his home to snoop on him, the actor said Wednesday after the agreement was announced in court.
Grant said he reluctantly settled because of a court policy that could have stuck him with a huge legal bill even if he prevailed at trial — a reality that could also force fellow claimant Prince Harry to settle, their lawyer said. A civil court rule intended to avoid jamming up the courts would have required Grant to pay legal fees to both sides if he won at trial but was awarded anything lower than the settlement offer.
“As is common with entirely innocent people, they are offering me an enormous sum of money to keep this matter out of court,” Grant said on the social media platform X. “Even if every allegation is proven in court, I would still be liable for something approaching $12.4 million in costs. I’m afraid I am shying at that fence.”
The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. NGN said in a statement that it admitted no liability and said the settlement was in the financial interest of both parties to avoid a costly trial.
Grant and other claimants have alleged that NGN, a subsidiary of the media empire built by Rupert Murdoch, violated their privacy through widespread unlawful activity that included hiring private investigators to intercept voicemails, tap phones, bug cars and use deception to access confidential information between 1994 and 2016.
Grant is among several celebrities, including actress Sienna Miller, soccer star Paul Gascoigne and Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm who have settled claims against the publisher.
Attorney Gideon Benaim, who was not involved in the case, said the publisher probably used the “incredibly powerful” rules of the court by making an offer Grant was unlikely to surpass at trial. If a judge awarded Grant less than the settlement offer, he would have faced significant legal costs under the rules.
“Hugh Grant would have been left in little doubt by his lawyers that the offer was pitched so that there was a real risk that he would not ‘beat’ it at trial,” Benaim said. “Therefore, even though he may have preferred to have fought the case, the financial risks were simply too great and he had, in effect, no choice but to settle.”
The settlement leaves The Duke of Sussex and 41 others scheduled to go to trial in the High Court in January, though their lawyer said settlements were being “forced upon” them.
“The Duke of Sussex is subject to the same issues that Sienna Miller and Hugh Grant have been subject to, which is that the offers are made that make it impossible for them to go ahead,” David Sherborne told a judge Wednesday at a hearing in the case.
The settlement came less than a year after Justice Timothy Fancourt rejected NGN’s attempt to throw out Grant’s lawsuit alleging unlawful information gathering.
“If true … these allegations would establish very serious, deliberate wrongdoing at NGN, conducted on an institutional basis on a huge scale,” Fancourt wrote in May. “They would also establish a concerted effort to conceal the wrongdoing by hiding and destroying relevant documentary evidence, repeated public denials, lies to regulators and authorities, and unwarranted threats to those who dared to make allegations or notify intended claims against The Sun.”
Grant said in a witness statement that he could never figure out who broke into his fourth-floor apartment in 2011. The door had been pried off its hinges and the interior looked like there had been a fight but nothing was missing. Two days later, The Sun had a story detailing the interior and “signs of a domestic row.”
He said he was astonished when a private eye hired by The Sun disclosed that people working for the newspaper had burglarized his apartment and placed a tracking device on his car.
Grant, who previously settled a case against Murdoch’s News of the World for hacking his phone, said he would not go away quietly.
“Murdoch’s settlement money has a stink and I refuse to let this be hush money,” he said. “I have spent the best part of 12 years fighting for a free press that does not distort the truth, abuse ordinary members of the public or hold elected (members of Parliament) to ransom in pursuit of newspaper barons’ personal profit and political power.”
Grant said he would direct the money to groups like Hacked Off, which was formed after phone hacking revelations in 2011 brought down News of the World and led to a government inquiry into unlawful press practices. Grant is a board member of the group that advocates for a free and accountable press.
While the now-defunct News of the World has apologized for hacking the phones of celebrities, politicians and families of dead soldiers and a murdered schoolgirl, The Sun has settled cases without admitting liability.
For Prince Harry, the case against The Sun is one of three similar lawsuits he has brought in his crusade to tame the British tabloids. He says the papers have hounded him most of his life and he blames them for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash while being pursued by paparazzi.
Last year, he won his first case to go to trial when Fancourt found phone hacking was “widespread and habitual” at Mirror Group Newspapers. In addition to a court judgment, he recently settled remaining allegations that included his legal fees. The total sum wasn’t announced, but he was due to receive an interim payment of 400,000 pounds ($498,000).
He has another case pending against the owner of the Daily Mail.
Sundance exploring options for 2027 film festival and beyond
The Sundance Film Festival may not always call Park City, Utah, home. The Sundance Institute has started to explore the possibility of other U.S. locations to host the independent film festival starting in 2027, the organization said Wednesday.
The 2025 and 2026 festivals will still take place in Park City and Salt Lake City. But with the current contract up for renewal in 2027, the institute is taking steps to look at all options through a request for information and request for proposal process, beginning immediately. The final selection, which could still be Park City, is expected to be announced by early 2025.
“We are in a unique moment for our Festival and our global film community, and with the contract up for renewal, this exploration allows us to responsibly consider how we best continue sustainably serving our community while maintaining the essence of the Festival experience,” said Eugene Hernandez, the festival’s director, in a statement.
Hernandez said they want to “ensure that the Festival continues to thrive culturally, operationally, and financially as it has for four decades.”
Park City has been home to the Robert Redford-founded festival for 40 years. The festival and its sponsors take over many venues in the small city every January to transform it into a film festival hub with theaters in places like the library and other pop-up experiences and gathering places.
But the contract and a changing landscape presented an opportunity to look at options that might best suit the festival going forward. Sundance received a record number of submissions last year.
Sundance has also been a launching pad for many top filmmakers over the years and has hosted premieres for eventual Oscar nominees and winners, including “CODA,” their first best picture winner, and the past three documentary winners “20 Days in Mariupol,””Navalny” and “Summer of Soul.”
“We are thrilled with the vitality we see in independent filmmaking and want to assure the continuous discovery and support of independent artists and audiences our Festival is known for,” said Ebs Burnough, the chair of the Sundance Institute Board, in a statement.
Redford, who stepped back from the Sundance spotlight years ago, expressed concern in 2016 that the festival as it existed might have outgrown Park City and was thinking about ways to evolve. He and his daughter, Amy Redford, who is on the board, have been involved in the process announced Wednesday.
Last month, the Institute’s CEO Joana Vicente stepped down after two and a half years in the position. Amanda Kelso, a member of the board, was appointed acting CEO, but no permanent replacement has been announced.
Noah Eagle picked by NBC as play-by-play voice for basketball
Noah Eagle is broadcasting his second Olympics this summer. He’s going to his first.
NBC Sports announced Wednesday that Eagle will be the play-by-play voice for USA Basketball’s men’s games, women’s games and the medal rounds at this summer’s Paris Olympics. The men’s roster was announced Wednesday; the women’s roster will be announced in the coming weeks.
Eagle broadcast 3×3 basketball at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago — but because of the pandemic, he did that from a studio in the U.S. This time, he’ll be courtside.
“I’m excited to feel it,” Eagle said.
The 26-year-old Syracuse alum called some Brooklyn Nets games for YES Network this season, previously spent four years as the radio voice of the Los Angeles Clippers and recently picked up a Sports Emmy nomination for his first season as the play-by-play voice of the Big Ten Saturday Night football package on NBC and Peacock.
“Noah has excelled on many high-profile events, including as our lead Big Ten voice, and NBA and college basketball games,” said Rebecca Chatman, the vice president and coordinating producer for NBC Olympics Production. “We are excited to hear him call Team USA’s quest for gold in both the men’s and women’s tournaments this summer.”
Eagle said he realized long ago that getting to go to work an Olympics — and basketball at the Olympics especially — would be “a massive pinch-me moment.”
The U.S. won gold in women’s 3×3 at Tokyo, so Eagle is already fully aware of what a gold-medal call is like. But there will be far more eyeballs on the men’s and women’s teams for 5-on-5 this summer, given the amount of star power those rosters will have.
“To be here is really cool,” Eagle said. “I also grew up as a swimmer, so the Olympics were always special in that sense, just because I had known how much work goes into one meet, let alone making an Olympic team, let alone winning a gold medal. So, to see it up close and personal will be really special.”
NBC Sports said its analysts and reporters for these games will be announced in the coming weeks. The U.S. basketball games will be shown across NBC, Peacock and USA Network, with specific platforms to be announced at a later date.
—From AP reports
