Paramount Lawsuit Claims PAs ‘Forced’ to Poop in Their Cars

[Brian in Mesa]

Paramount Lawsuit Claims PAs ‘Forced’ to Poop in Their Cars

http://www.thewrap.com/paramount-lawsuit-claims-pas-forced-to-poop-in-their-cars/

Paramount Pictures is being sued by a group of production assistants who are raising quite a stink about their working conditions on movie sets.

Four parking production assistants (PPAs) are alleging that Paramount, along with Nickelodeon Movies, Regency Films, and a number of other production companies, were so strict about them leaving their posts during filming that they were required to turn their cars into bathrooms.

“Due to limitations on their ability to leave their assigned locations, many of the Plaintiffs are forced to urinate and defecate into bottles and buckets in their vehicles,” court documents obtained by TheWrap state.

The PPAs, who worked on the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movies and “Wolf of Wall Street,” also allege that the companies named in the suit regularly required them to work between 60 and 100 hours per week with no overtime pay.

Instead, they were paid a flat rate of $150 a day on average for a 12-hour day. The suit also states that the PPAs were not provided compensation for food, nor given access to food on set, despite others being given dinner on set.

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[BillsCarnage]

Parking production assistant? Is that like a glorified valet?

 

[Cheesebeef]

I buy that entire story except the no food part.

 

[Chaplin]

I buy that entire story except the no food part.

Yep. Worst jobs in Hollywood.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Yep. Worst jobs in Hollywood.

2nd worst job. Non-union Background Extras have it worse. They don't even get craft services most of the time and have to wait in the very back of the line, after EVERYONE on the crew has gone through to pick up whatever scraps are left for meals. Oh... and they make like 54/8... and that's BEFORE taxes.

There's literally nothing worse then that job. You might as well be pond scum.

 

[Chaplin]

2nd worst job. Non-union Background Extras have it worse. They don't even get craft services most of the time and have to wait in the very back of the line, after EVERYONE on the crew has gone through to pick up whatever scraps are left for meals. Oh... and they make like 54/8... and that's BEFORE taxes.

There's literally nothing worse then that job. You might as well be pond scum.

I don't know... Yes, they get paid nothing but at least they don't have to fetch entitled *******s their coffee or, apparently, crap in their own car.

 

[Stout]

2nd worst job. Non-union Background Extras have it worse. They don't even get craft services most of the time and have to wait in the very back of the line, after EVERYONE on the crew has gone through to pick up whatever scraps are left for meals. Oh... and they make like 54/8... and that's BEFORE taxes.

There's literally nothing worse then that job. You might as well be pond scum.

Yeah, I was an extra on War of the Worlds. It was supposed to be two days, but we went from 5am until 11pm, and there was no way I was doing that again the next day. To be fair, they treated us very well, gave us plenty of rest/bathroom/water breaks, and we ate very well. For 75 or so bucks, pre-tax, though...nah, not worth it.

 

[oaken1]

2nd worst job. Non-union Background Extras have it worse. They don't even get craft services most of the time and have to wait in the very back of the line, after EVERYONE on the crew has gone through to pick up whatever scraps are left for meals. Oh... and they make like 54/8... and that's BEFORE taxes.

There's literally nothing worse then that job. You might as well be pond scum.

background extras don't even get a credit right? Have to hope their face shows clearly on the tape to try and use it on a resume?

 

[Cheesebeef]

I don't know... Yes, they get paid nothing but at least they don't have to fetch entitled *******s their coffee or, apparently, crap in their own car.

I've worked both of those jobs. Have you ever worked as an extra? I have... for about six months. I was a rainy day short of suicide doing that stuff.

I also don't buy crapping in their car. haven't those kids ever heard of popping a squat? kids today, I tell you!

 

[Cheesebeef]

background extras don't even get a credit right? Have to hope their face shows clearly on the tape to try and use it on a resume?

nope.

you're treated like human cattle. literally, when there's a huge scene, it's referred to as a CATTLE CALL. And the treatment can range from merely bad to horrendous.

On one job I worked, they weren't even letting the extras inside the tent for dinner before the entire cast and crew were out... while it was like 30 degrees outside. Finally, I talked to someone to do SOMETHING about that. Best that happened was ONE heat lamp was brought outside for 25 of them to huddle around... for half an hour before our crew was done with dinner.

 

[Chaplin]

I've worked both of those jobs. Have you ever worked as an extra? I have... for about six months. I was a rainy day short of suicide doing that stuff.

I also don't buy crapping in their car. haven't those kids ever heard of popping a squat? kids today, I tell you!

I did. Once. The agency lied to us and said we'd be paid, but we weren't. It was a b-movie where we worked one day and didn't do anything for 13 hours. It was excruciating, yes, but I HATED being a PA much more.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I did. Once. The agency lied to us and said we'd be paid, but we weren't. It was a b-movie where we worked one day and didn't do anything for 13 hours. It was excruciating, yes, but I HATED being a PA much more.

prob because you only did it one day. Being surrounded by extras that should really be locked up in insane asylums and being treated like pond scum day in, day out, for little to no pay just can't be beat. At least as a PA, on the sets I worked, I was usually well liked and felt like part of something, even though the job was miserable and I probably came close to giving myself cancer with all the reds I was smoking to kill time.

 

[Chaplin]

prob because you only did it one day. Being surrounded by extras that should really be locked up in insane asylums and being treated like pond scum day in, day out, for little to no pay just can't be beat. At least as a PA, on the sets I worked, I was usually well liked and felt like part of something, even though the job was miserable and I probably came close to giving myself cancer with all the reds I was smoking to kill time.

Different strokes.

We can at least agree that both jobs are tantamount to drinking drano.

 

[Shaggy]

I was an extra on three Kings and just like Stout, it didn't pay much ($8/hour) but we weren't treated bad either. Cool thing is I became a sag member on my second day of shooting. Still getting residuals to this day and it was 18 years ago.

 

[Stout]

I was an extra on three Kings and just like Stout, it didn't pay much ($8/hour) but we weren't treated bad either. Cool thing is I became a sag member on my second day of shooting. Still getting residuals to this day and it was 18 years ago.

I thought I'd get a shot at being in the movie--not sure what that might have gotten me--probably nothing. I put myself by the lead Humvee, right when the whole line of them turned up a hill. I knew, KNEW, that shot would be in the movie, so I made sure I sidled up to that spot while all the women tried to get closer to Cruise, who was like 500 yards away. I was right, the shot was in the movie--re-shot with one of the leads

 

[Shaggy]

I thought I'd get a shot at being in the movie--not sure what that might have gotten me--probably nothing. I put myself by the lead Humvee, right when the whole line of them turned up a hill. I knew, KNEW, that shot would be in the movie, so I made sure I sidled up to that spot while all the women tried to get closer to Cruise, who was like 500 yards away. I was right, the shot was in the movie--re-shot with one of the leads

So can you see yourself? I was in several scenes when they came to the border crossing. I'm just not smack dab in front of the camera so you would have to look for me. Fun experience for sure.

 

[Stout]

So can you see yourself? I was in several scenes when they came to the border crossing. I'm just not smack dab in front of the camera so you would have to look for me. Fun experience for sure.

No, they cut me out of the movie to put the star in. Mine was mostly a boring experience, slogging around in cold fields all day. They used us as refugees, and then CGI'd a bunch more people into the fields.

The one really, really cool thing that happened was that this second or third director was doing our one shot, and apparently screwing everything up. Spielberg had to come over and film it himself, and he was PISSED. He chewed that guy out up one side and down the other, called him everything but a nice guy. Okay, so it wasn't really cool for that director, but still.

 

[Shaggy]

Talking about a director getting pissed. The director of three kings got pissed at me for not falling when ice cube was pushing me out of the way. Came up cussing at me and said do I want to be in this f'ing movie, that I better fall right. About 10 mins later George Clooney came up to me and asked if the director got into it with me. 20 mins later both he and the director started fighting. A hour later the director came back up to me and apologized. Not to bad of an experience for a 19 year old.

 

[Chaplin]

Talking about a director getting pissed. The director of three kings got pissed at me for not falling when ice cube was pushing me out of the way. Came up cussing at me and said do I want to be in this f'ing movie, that I better fall right. About 10 mins later George Clooney came up to me and asked if the director got into it with me. 20 mins later both he and the director started fighting. A hour later the director came back up to me and apologized. Not to bad of an experience for a 19 year old.

To be fair, David O. Russell has a terrible reputation in this town, and the feud with him and Clooney is the stuff of legend (and still exists to this day).

 

[Southpaw]

Talking about a director getting pissed. The director of three kings got pissed at me for not falling when ice cube was pushing me out of the way. Came up cussing at me and said do I want to be in this f'ing movie, that I better fall right. About 10 mins later George Clooney came up to me and asked if the director got into it with me. 20 mins later both he and the director started fighting. A hour later the director came back up to me and apologized. Not to bad of an experience for a 19 year old.

To be fair, David O. Russell has a terrible reputation in this town, and the feud with him and Clooney is the stuff of legend (and still exists to this day).

Wow. Found this;

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/oct/15/news.georgeclooney


Was this you?

First, there was a fight with George Clooney during the shooting of Three Kings in the Arizona desert (doubling for Iraq), after the star stepped in to stop Russell’s apparent mistreatment of various crew members. Clooney is reported to have berated his boss, “You can’t shove, push or humiliate people,” and described the incident as the worst experience of his life. Even five years later, the usually sedate Clooney told Premiere magazine that he would “sock Russell in the f***ing mouth” if he ran into him. The director responded in foul-mouthed kind in another interview.

 

[Stout]

Talking about a director getting pissed. The director of three kings got pissed at me for not falling when ice cube was pushing me out of the way. Came up cussing at me and said do I want to be in this f'ing movie, that I better fall right. About 10 mins later George Clooney came up to me and asked if the director got into it with me. 20 mins later both he and the director started fighting. A hour later the director came back up to me and apologized. Not to bad of an experience for a 19 year old.

Whoa, cool!

 

[Bert]

I pooed in my car once, but it was an accident.

 

[DemsMyBoys]

I pooed in my car once, but it was an accident.

Thank you for sharing but I hope that's not the the basis of a screenplay you've had in your car trunk in case you run into Spielberg while working as a PA (it's a 'thing' with PA's, trust me) because that's the worst movie plot ever.

 

[Bert]

Worst movie plot ever.

 

[Stout]

Thank you for sharing but I hope that's not the the basis of a screenplay you've had in your car trunk in case you run into Spielberg while working as a PA (it's a 'thing' with PA's, trust me) because that's the worst movie plot ever.

After watching Spielberg on set, I'd watch it