Emmy Award winning sitcom “Modern Family” is in trouble. Six of the eleven cast members (all of the adults) have filed a lawsuit against ABC to get high salaries.

“Modern Family” won a Golden Globe in January and has been nominated for 14 Emmys this year, the most for any sitcom. The past two years has seen “Modern Family” take home the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. Three of the six actors have won Emmys for their work on the show including Ty Burrell (Phil Dunphy), Julie Bowen (Claire Dunphy), and Eric Stonestreet (Cameron Tucker). The other actors involved in the law suit are Sofia Vergara (Gloria Delgado-Pritchett) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell Pritchett).

Ed O’Neill (Jay Pritchett) was originally not a part of the law suit because his contract was much better than the rest of the cast from his work on “Married…With Children” according to the BBC. However, according to the Huffington Post he has joined the lawsuit as an “act of solidarity” while he is also trying to sort out his own contract dispute.

The actors have filed the law suit in which they want a judge to rule their contracts void because the contracts are preventing them from getting other work and keep their salary relatively low. Additionally, the contracts last from February 2009 to June 2016 which may technically violate a California law stating that any contract over personal services can last no more than seven years.

Vergara, Stonestreet, Burrell, Bowen, and Ferguson all get paid around $60,000 to $65,000 an episode whereas O’Neill gets around $105,000; their pay raises are capped at a four or five percent increase per season. The actors are also asked to participate in unpaid publicity work. Vergara is actually the highest paid Hispanic actress in Hollywood according to the Huffington Post.

Now the cast wants $200,000 per episode of Season 4. ABC and 20^th Century Fox tried to make a deal with the five actors (excluding O’Neill) in which they would get paid $150,000 per episode with $50,000 bonuses. Each season the cast would receive an increase in the amount paid per episode to $200,000 for Season 5, $225,000 for Season 6 until it reached $325,000 for Season 9. However, the cast has turned down this proposal and officially filed the law suit instead. Seasons 8 and 9 have not officially been contracted, although 20^th Century Fox and ABC have already admitted that they would like to contract the actors at least up to that number of seasons.

The papers filed with the court state: “Since its debut on ABC in the fall of 2009, Modern Family has been one of the most successful shows on television. Modern Family has been a breakout critical and financial success. That success, however, has been built upon a collection of illegal contracts.” Additionally, ABC made $160 million just off of the advertising revenue for Season 3 alone.

The actors did not show up to the first day for Season 4 on July 24 for the script reading. The script reading was then cancelled and the future of the season is uncertain.

Image Courtesy of    Loren Javier

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Glendale, U.S.A. – DreamWorks Animation SKG announced that Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report”, Emmy Award winner Allison Janney from ‘The Help’ and “The West Wing,” Ellie Kemper from ‘Bridesmaids’ and “The Office,” Ariel Winter from “Modern Family” and Stephen Tobolowsky “Californication” and ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ have joined previously announced cast members, Emmy Award winner Ty Burrell of “Modern Family” and Max Charles from ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and ‘The Three Stooges’ in the studio’s ‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’, which is now scheduled to be released on November 8, 2013. The film had previously been slated for March 14, 2014, a release date now planned for the studio’s ‘Me & My Shadow’.

“These incredible casting additions have elevated Mr. Peabody & Sherman to a new level of excitement and we are truly fortunate to work with so many talented actors,” said DreamWorks Animation Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke. “I’m certain that their collective passion and enthusiasm for the film will bring the classic characters of “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” to new life and thrill audiences of all ages when we open in November of next year.”

‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’ is directed by Rob Minkoff also director of ‘Stuart Little’ and ‘The Lion King’ and produced by Alex Schwartz – formerly involved in ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth”’and ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ – and Denise Cascino – producer of ‘Megamind’ and ‘Shrek the Third’. It is being written by Craig Wright who also wrote ‘United States of Tara’ and “Six Feet Under” and Michael McCullers from ‘Baby Mama’ and ‘Austin Powers in Goldmember’. Bullwinkle Studios’ Tiffany Ward and Classic Media’s Eric Ellenbogen are serving as executive producers on the film along with Jason Clark who is best known for ‘Monster House’ and ‘Stuart Little’.

Based on Jay Ward’s classic cartoon, Mr. Peabody is the world’s smartest person who happens to be a dog. When his “pet” boy Sherman uses their time traveling WABAC machine without permission, events in history spiral out of control to disastrous and comical results. It’s up to this most unexpected of father-son teams to somehow put things back on track before the space-time continuum is irreparably destroyed.

DreamWorks Animation creates visual entertainment, including CG animated feature films, television specials and series, live entertainment properties and online virtual worlds, meant for audiences around the world.

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San Diego, U.S.A - And the award goes to…. Sony Tablet. The traditional envelop will be missed. At the 2012 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, on-stage presenters will announce the winners by reading their names off of the Sony Tablet P.

With almost everything making the move to digital these days, it is only natural that the iconic awards show moment – when the presenter rips opens an envelope and announces the winner – is also making a technological leap forward.

Presenters for all seven on-air awards will use a Sony Tablet P in place of the traditional envelope. Presenters will open the folding, dual-screen tablet to reveal the name of the winner on the screen inside. Sony Tablet S is being used by members of the production team through pre-production and on show night in monitoring the ongoing discussions across all social media sites.

The 2012 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and are to be broadcast live on ABC, Sunday, May 20, 2012.   This year’s presenters include Taio Cruz, Gavin DeGraw, Gladys Knight, Julianne Hough, Natasha Bedingfield and Jeremy Sisto. More presenters will be announced as the show draws closer. ABC Modern Family’s Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell were previously announced as the event’s hosts.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Sony to make the Billboard Music Awards winner announcements more exciting and dynamic than ever before,” said Tommy Page, publisher of Billboard. “This new advancement in the show is a perfect extension of the Billboard brand as we are constantly evolving our digital content offerings on various platforms from Billboard.com to the Billboard chart app.”

The 2012 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas is a production co-executive produced by Richard D. Beckman, CEO Prometheus Global Media and Don Mischer Productions. The special will be shot in high definition and broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HD format, with 5.1 channel surround sound.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.billboard.com

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New York, U.S.A. – “The Comedy Awards” (#comedyawards) are back and better than, well, last year, when the second annual event airs on COMEDY CENTRAL on Sunday, May 6 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Some of the biggest names in comedy, including Chris Rock, Kristen Wiig, Ty Burrell,Tracy Morgan, Will Arnett, Hannibal Buress, Chevy Chase, Louis C.K., Tina Fey, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Annie Mumolo, Chris Parnell, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Adam Scott, and Jon Stewart joined the night’s big honorees Don Rickles and Robin Williams to honor and celebrate the world of comedy.

Highlights from the show include:

• Robert De Niro and Jon Stewart presenting Don Rickles with the “Johnny Carson Award for Comedic Excellence”
• Patton Oswalt presenting Robin Williams with the “Stand-Up Icon Award”
• Politically-themed fun as Tracy Morgan contemplates joining the Secret Service and Key & Peele bring out President Obama’s Anger Translator Luther
• Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (literally) wrestling over their award for “Best Comedy Film”
• The night’s big winner Louis C.K. wondering if four awards is maybe a few too many
• Chris Rock riffing on whether or not the nominees are actually funny
• And much more…

Fans are encouraged to visit www.thecomedyawards.com to vote for their digital favorites in categories including Best Comedy App, Best Comedy Podcast, Best Remix, Mash-up or Supercut and  Funniest Person on Twitter.  Voting for these categories will be open through Sunday, May 6, when “The Comedy Awards” premieres on COMEDY CENTRAL

“The Comedy Awards” is led by its Board of Directors which include such luminaries as: Carol Burnett,James Burrows, Greg Cavic, Stephen Colbert, James Dixon, Budd Friedman, Jim Gosnell, Rick Greenstein, Brad Grey, Caroline Hirsch, Sharon Jackson, Blair Kohan, Martin Lesak, Steve Levine, Jamie Masada, Adam McKay, Jimmy Miller, Conan O’Brien, Peter Principato, Joan Rivers, Jay Roach, Chris Rock, Ray Romano, Rory Rosegarten, Michael Rotenberg, George Schlatter, Mitzi Shore, David Steinberg, Jon Stewart, Lily Tomlin, Sandy Wernick and Geof Wills.

The Board of Directors is responsible for the selection of the nominees.  The nominees are then sent out to over 1500 working members of the comedy community to determine the winners.

“The Comedy Awards” has once again joined forces with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) to endow The American Comedy Fund.  Without a union or other protection, many comedians face unique challenges to succeed and survive.

The Fund provides much-needed financial assistance, health benefits and other resources for comedians across the country during times of need, crisis or transition.  The American Comedy Fund is administered by EIF in collaboration with the Motion Picture & Television Fund and The Actors Fund.

Don Mischer, Casey Patterson, EVP, Event Production, Viacom Entertainment Group and Charlie Haykelare the Executive Producers.  Juliane Hare is Producer.  Beth McCarthy Miller, the Peabody and DGA Award-winning and Emmy-nominated Director, directed “The Comedy Awards.”  “The American Comedy Awards” was created by George Schlatter.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.comedycentral.com

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