* *alert Nickelodeon Admits to Kid Kickback Contracts.

Nickelodeon contracts anger AFTRA
Org demands cabler stop shaving actors' pay

By DAVE MCNARY

The American Federation of Television & Radio Artists has demanded that Nickelodeon stop offering contracts to actors that gives the cabler a share of non-Nick income earned by thesps.

AFTRA national exec director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth made the demand in a recent letter to Nick outside counsel Bill Zuckerman, asserting that Nick's been imposing a requirement "that the performer grant to the employer a right to a 'profit participation' interest in the talent's third-party income as a condition of employment."

"The collective bargaining agreement between AFTRA and Nickelodeon does not permit this action by the employer," Hedgpeth said. "It is AFTRA's position that Nickelodeon's actions in this regard violate, among other provisions, the exclusivity provisions of the collective bargaining agreement. Further, based upon our preliminary review, we believe this practice may in violation of California law."

Nick said in response that it could not go into detail about the pacts but added that its deals are fair.

"All of our contracts with talent are negotiated arrangements and the terms are private and confidential," the cabler said. "No one is forced to sign a contract with us. We believe our deals reflect a fair balance of interests between the artists and Nickelodeon."

The cabler did not elaborate, but it's understood that Nick's thinking is that the deals are structured so that the net's able to offer higher fees upfront in exchange for recouping part of its initial investment in the talent.

Hedgpeth's letter demanded that Nick provide a list of all performers who have signed employment contracts that contain such a "profit participation" clause, adding that such an agreement is "void and unenforceable."

The structure of the Nick contracts was first reported on the Sagwatchdog.com website.

Like this article? Variety.com has over 150,000 articles, 40,000 reviews and 10,000 pages of charts. Subscribe today!
http://www.variety.com/emailfriend
or call (866) MY-VARIETY.
Can't commit? Sign up for a free trial!
http://www.variety.com/emailfriend

The big question now, is how long did AFTRA know about these Kickback contracts before AFTRA’s NED Kim Hedgpeth decided to send the email to Nickelodeon.

AFTRA Board member, and lawyer, David Browde was rather vague when he posted on the SAG Actor Bulletin Board that AFTRA knew about Nickelodeon’s Kid Kickback demands MORE than a month ago. Of course, he is a lawyer, MORE than a month could be three months, or six months.

Who knows, AFTRA could have known about these abuses for a long time and only took action against their "bread and butter" network Nickelodeon, after the abuses came to light, and the media started asking questions, as Variety Reporter Dave McNary did.

It’s not enough to send a threatening email to Nickelodeon, get some names and then pretend it didn’t happen. To find out how widespread these contracts are among the networks, AFTRA’s board of directors needs to immediately implement an investigation.

AFTRA, should also alert, any governmental agencies that might be involved, if indeed laws have been broken. And since, children are involved here, I’d guess that there were.

I would also suggest that SAG’s leadership look into this situation since it affects those SAG actors who find themselves working under contracts currently being poached by AFTRA.

The following verifies that NED Hedgpeth’s email to Nickelodeon was sent on Friday (3/14/08!