*alert Bravo Reality Contract has performers working for FREE! *shock See the contract and its stipulations. *do

The Ol’ Dog recently reported to you how one of the Unite For Strength party leaders, Kathy Joosten, was using her celebrity to lure SAG members ‘to work for food’ in a new series she was doing for the Internet called “Nurses Who Kill.”

Not that she was doing anything illegal, in that the show was being done under the new SAG contract. It is a contract that our new USAN/UFS leadership negotiated with the AMPTP before convincing our membership to vote for it.

Reality Shocker: N.J. 'Real Housewives' Do Series for Free, Pay Bravo 10% of Post-Show Earnings. UPDATE: Bravo Says it Pays All Housewives on Show Popsquire

According to a contract given to participants, the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” don’t get paid to appear on the hit Bravo show.

Adding insult to injury, according to a contract signed by one cast member, participants have to pay Bravo 10% of “any and all gross income … unrelated to the Series” that they bring in for up to four years after the last episode airs.

This is a great deal for Bravo. Last month's season finale of the show drew more than 4.6 million viewers. It aired on a Tuesday night, and the episode was the most-watched show on television that night in the 18-49 adult demographic.

Our source for the contract info is Popsquire, the website that bills itself as the place "where pop culture and the law collide." The copy of the contract the site acquired--which is on display on the site--was from February, 2008.
UPDATE: (July 10th) Bravo has issued the following statement with regard to this Popsquire story:

"Rest assured, all our housewives are financially compensated...we only wish they would participate for free."

--Chuck Ross

Ah, there we go again, another non-denial denial. Let’s see “all of the housewives are financially compensated!” Of course, they’re compensated, but just not by Bravo. In fact, if they weren’t compensated, Bravo wouldn’t ask the show’s participants to pay Bravo 10% of any and all gross income.

In regards to getting 10 percent of the performers ‘outside’ income, this deal is reminiscent of the AFTRA contract on Nickelodeon that allowed Nick too get 25 percent of the performers ‘outside’ income. Wow! Only AFTRA could lowball a non-union contract. You can read about the Nickelodeon deal at the following two links. http://sagwatchdog.com/cgi-bin/admin_config.pl/read/831
http://sagwatchdog.com/cgi-bin/admin_config.pl/read/833

Bravo is in many ways like AFTRA’s “Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes” leadership in the face of irrefutable evidence. Even, after the posting, on this website, of a half a dozen of their cable contracts that either undercut minimums, gave away residuals or both, AFTRA still denied that they were undercutting. In fact, in a recent story by the Hollywood Reporter’s Andrew Solomon, he was still referring to AFTRA’s ‘alleged’ undercutting of SAG contracts.

Yeah, right. AFTRA allegedly undercut SAG contracts, just like George Washington allegedly was our first president, Hitler allegedly invaded Poland, and Elvis allegedly died.

Oh, and here is a copy of a ‘Real Housewives’ contract obtained by Popsquire

Now, before you say but, but this is a non-union contract…don’t forget this contract is no different than a “freely bargained” new media SAG or AFTRA contract—in which the “Moderates” of both unions agreed to similar AMPTP terms stipulating that

If our membership continues to listen to and vote for “The Work for Food” UFS/USAN candidates, it is only going to get worse. Yes, they are willing to sell out SAG’s future for immediate gratification, but, unfortunately for not only future generations, but current membership the future is NOW.

New elections will soon be upon SAG members, and it will be up to the membership what course they want to set for SAG. Do they want to work for food, or free. If so they can vote for the so-called ‘moderates-—or as some call them ‘lower-rates.’

On the other hand, If they want leadership that will not capitulate but contest, then they will vote for the so-called “Hardliners.”

Personally, the Ol’ Dog is looking for a group of “Hard-asses;” a group that will tell SAG’s current leadership to shove its non-disparagement edict, a group that will promise the membership that it will not be shut-up by an anti-democratic resolution that hides the truth from the membership about AFTRA’s continuing efforts to destroy the Screen Actors Guild with undercutting--and compliance to the AMPTP and its work for food, or free contracts.

“The guild agrees that it will not interfere in any such negotiations between the performer and the producer.”