In recent years has SAG created rules to protect the earnings of child actors? I seem to recall that Gary Coleman's parents were accused of mishandling his money, and that's why he ended up nearly broke. I believe SAG has a pension plan for actors; when can they start collecting from it?
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"In a row?"
I don't know about that, but I hope they have done something. I'm pretty sure that in JTT's day, child actors were only guaranteed 25% of their earnings under the law. And I think that's ridiculous. And a lot of these child actors have one of their parents, usually their mother, as their manager. So, in the case of Jon, Claudine (his mom) could have probably "made" almost as much money as Jon. And I think that's ridiculous.
That's one reason why I wouldn't want to be a child actor, I think they get cheated out of the rightful amount of money that they should be making. I hope there are stricter laws developed about all of this and that child actors are protected. And sometimes, you can't trust the parent(s) to do that, I think child actors should maybe get a court appointed 3rd party or something, who looks out for the childs interests. Because sometimes these parents get out of control, wanting to make a bunch of money, which, in my opinion, they don't deserve.
I remember the Gary Coleman thing, that was really sad. But I really don't know much about SAG, but hopefully someone else does, who can come here and answer these questions, because I am interested to know too about the pension plan and protections of child actors earnings.
When Taran Noah Smith was fighting with his parents over his money, I read up on that. And something he said stuck with me. I'm not quoting because I can't remember his exact words, but he said something like this: These parents just drive their kids to work and see these huge paydays in it for themselves.
Honestly, it makes me really mad and it's not right. When I was reading that, I was thinking that something needs to be done. It's unethical. These parents should not be taking a bunch of money.
As far as Jon's money, I think it maybe went like this:
Jon got 25%
His agent got 10%
Taxes were 35% ?
Where did the rest go? I don't know, but child actors just seem to get ripped off, don't they?
Okay, some of this info might be wrong because I'm just typing from memory...
A few years back, when I was taking acting classes, my teacher had to explain to my parents how the whole money thing went once you were signed with a talent agency and started booking jobs.
An agent/manager gets 10-15% of your earnings. It's been that way since the late 80's, I believe. Anything more than that is highly unusual, and if someone is demanding and/or earning more money than that off of someone else's work, then they should be reported.
I don't think that 35% of Jonathan's money went to Uncle Sam. That's pretty high. I'm pretty sure hey only tax you as much as the state you are working in allows. So I'm guessing 10%, at most.
In the early 2000's (I think) there was this big thing in the industry where this former child actor found out that her parents had tricked her out of tons of money. They went to court, la da da...Long story short, her parents were convicted of stealing money from her. After that, they made a law in California (or nationwide?) stating that ALL MONEY that a minor working in the entertainment industry earns (with the exception of taxes and manager fees) is to be deposited into a private savings fund that their parents must open up for them after the kid starts booking jobs and earning money. However, the parents are never allowed to touch the money, and the child cannot access the cash until they are a legal adult or unless they have a parent's permission. If someone finds out that your parents didn't open up this account and were instead depositing it into their bank, their asses go to jail.
The purpose of the law was to make it impossible for parents (and other people) to swindle their kids out of money, and also so ensure that kids would not spend their money frivolously. But none of this became law until much more recently. Like, when they started filming HI, I'm pretty sure none of this had gone down yet. Because it's pretty much common knowledge that the three boys were tricked out of money and treated unfairly by the studios throughout the show's run. There was definitely something going on behind that scenes regarding the three boys' paychecks. To be honest, I don't know what the hell happened to the rest of their money. I'm guessing that somehow they were tricked into either giving more money than necessary to their parents and managers, or the studio just flat out didn't pay them what they were supposed to be earning. Like I said, everyone knows that those boys were treated like crap and no one ever said anything.
But like I said, take everything I say with a grain of salt because chances are, I am incorrect :P
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This makes sense :)
Wasn't there a huge showdown between Taran Noah Smith (Mark) and his folks regarding the whole money thing?
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I've never heard about anything going down on set. But I wouldn't put it beneath them. I know there was a ton of sh!t happening off set/behind the scenes (his woman, his parents, his money, etc..). To be honest, I'm surprised it wasn't as big a deal in the media as the JTT/Tim thing.
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Also, about Taran...
I do believe there was an issue with his parents over money. He sued them or something? I don't remember exactly. But after he divorced that older woman, didn't she get most of the (little) money he had left? I remember seeing a video on TMZ of their house, which I guess she got after the divorce and then let the government foreclose on it. The video and article implied that someone (most likely TNS) had gone through the house and like, completely wrecked it inside. Chunks of wall were missing, there was graffiti all over, someone had peed on the walls....Dude, it was nasty.
Why, I'm an expert on padded cells.