Soap Actress Says She Was Fired Because of Religious Beliefs

http://www.foxnews.com/ ^ | September 04, 2009 | By Lauren Green

[x]

Well then, she should probably not have taken a job on an MSM soap opera. There has to be something in the story line that offends traditional Christian beliefs at least once every other day.

Probably. But when her character was created, her "television family" were supposed to be hard-working, religious Latins who didn't go in for a lot of the nonsense and depravity going on around them, a throwback to the earlier days of the soaps. That was a long time ago, though, and the soaps were a lot tamer then. I don't know when she came on board.

[IronJack]

The owners of the program own the character.

Incorrect. Lorne Greene owned Ben Cartwright far more than Melvin Klutnick, the accountant in Boston who decided what NBC should spend on "Bonanza." And the network didn't pay Jennifer Aniston a mill an episode because they could get another Rachel at any bus stop.

However, I speak in the aesthetic, not the legal, sense.

And your analogy to assembly-line automobiles illustrates a basic conflict between labor and capital that has existed at least since the Industrial Revolution. The owners of the factory can fire the worker who refuses to paint the car, but unless they can find someone who IS willing to paint it the "hideous" color of green, either they will have to paint it themselves (and presumably poorly) or they will have to acquiesce to the workers' refusal.

In effect, the worker DOES "own" some part of the fruit of his labor.