CC Situation

 Posted on 10/2/1997 by J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com> to CIS


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"...her stated view is that she was told it was 22 eps. or nothing by
the Turner people. No possible time off."

Again, this is only a partial statement. She was told that if
she wanted to be *paid* for 22 episodes, then the contract would have
to stipulate that she was hired for 22 episodes. The probelm was that
she wanted to have the contract read that she was being paid for 22
episodes, but appearing in 18, which constitutes a per-episode pay
increase, which would invalidate our contracts with all the other cast
members, who are on a favored-nation basis. Had her people said, "Just
pay us for 18 episodes and we'll just do 18 episodes," there would
never have been a problem. We did the same thing for Stephen Furst.

"Yes, when she didn't /couldn't agree to that, she was "booted"."

One clarification. You cannot fire someone who does not work
for you. That is the one part of this conversation everybody keeps
forgetting. As of June 15th, when Claudia did not give the extension,
her contract expired and she no longer worked for B5, or WB; neither
had any call or hold on her. What had to happen then was for WB to put
an offer on the table for her services. This was done. A deadline was
finally put on for a Friday, because of the pressures of production.
She did not accept the offer, and by that Friday, the offer was
withdrawn.

jms