GUN TO HBO'S HEAD

NY Post ^ | March 14, 2003 | DON KAPLAN and RUSSELL SCOTT SMITH

[Maceman]

"Sopranos" star James Gandolfini issued an ultimatum to HBO yesterday in the salary war that is threatening to whack the series: Negotiate with me or cancel the show.

"It's time for both sides to either say we're finished or we're going to deal like mature people," Dan Klores, the actor's spokesman, told The Post.

[timestax]

bye bye baby, bye bye

[Illbay]

All the news that's fit to leave off Free Republic.

[Maceman]

All the news that's fit to leave off Free Republic.

I respectfully disagree.

[TomServo]

All the news that's fit to leave off Free Republic.

Heh heh...

[JennysCool]

SERIOUS case of David Caruso Syndrome.

[BushMeister]

Somebody's math is off. Sixth-tenths of 1% of $800 million is $4.8 million.

[psjones]

And he's the main person responsible for the profits HBO makes off Sopranos, yeah right. Good writing is also important, not that I watch this show, not the type of show I'm inclined to watch. I'd say he's being greedy.

[sinkspur]

Gandolfini's on his way back to obscurity, the same place he was when he struck gold with The Sopranos.

Dumb move, goombah!

[Mr. Bird]

when the actor who plays mob boss Tony Soprano in the hit series filed suit to void his contract.

I don't know the esoterica of Hollywood contracts, but it seems to me that if you sign a contract for a certain dollar amount, you should stick to it. Nothing is keeping him from asking for more at renewal, or asking to renegotiate, but to simply wish to void it because you want more money seems, well, greedy.

[longtermmemmory]

i believe its "basta baby" with a hand to chin gesture...

[discostu]

Nah, HBO will cave. With Sex and the City (thankfully) over they need toe Sopranos. Six Feet Under is good but it doesn't get the ratings, the critic love Curb Your Enthusiams but it sucks and isn't getting the ratings. Sopranos is the cash cow that makes Star Trek look like pocket change. Look for HBO to continue to do a lot of wierd stuff to try to keep it going.

[Mister Baredog]

We have seen enough of this series. The show has gone downhill anyway, who cares

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Gandolfini's not stupid. He knows that HBO is making a killing (no pun intended) off the show.

The cast of Friends were unknown too until they woke up and realized that NBC was raking in the dough from advertisers. Now how much do they make an episode? A million bucks?

[longtermmemmory]

He is saying HBO did not "officially" notify him that the sopranos would be pick up again and thus on that technicality he could evade the contract.

[YOMO]

HBO,
Cancel the Show and create something else.
The next cast will be happy to take that slot and money.

[shadowman99]

The only compelling argument I have heard to support the actors:

Compare the success of the Sopranos to NBC's Friends (where the actors make $1m per ep.)

HBO pays many of the actors on the Sopranos SAG union scale (I heard that's ~10 thousand per ep.)

10k times 13 episodes = 130 thousand dollars per year. Divide that with about four other people who represent you (agent, manager, etc...) and you still pay taxes from your cut. Keep in mind these people live in California, where the cost of living is a joke.

So many of the actors are egging Tony on. Gandolfini isn't the real issue here. It's that HBO underpays most of it's actors, and HBO doesn't want to change this. The real risk here is HBO's entire Sunday evening line-up could take a walk.

HBO is owned by AOLTimeWarner who don't want to part with the cash, but also cannot afford to lose the show. I expect a settlement with a gag order on J.G. to keep him from discussing salary with his co-stars.

I expect Sundays on HBO will begin to gravitate to "reality" based show without actors (Real sex, America Undercover, etc...)

I'm personally a fan of the Sopranos - it's one of the few shows on TV that's not a festering pool of liberal politics.

[sinkspur]

Gandolfini's not stupid. He knows that HBO is making a killing (no pun intended) off the show.

And it's the show that's popular, not necessarily Gandolfini.

Let him negotiate like everybody else, not throw his weight around at the last minute.

I like the show, but if Gandolfini died tomorrow, the show would have to figure out what to do without him, so let 'em figure it out now.

[doug from upland]

Too bad that by not honoring his contract he will be cutting the throats of 300 other "lesser" people. Greed can be a tragic thing.

[dennisw]

For what it's worth I support James Gandolfini. He labored for years with low paying acting gigs. He should take what he can get from HBO. This is prolly the highest paying job he'll ever have so he should go for the gold.