This mainly applies to “commercial online entertainment employment providers” that use the service to hire actors, where any age discrimination could take place.
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Yesterday, Governor of California Jerry Brown signed AB 1687-a law that requires entertainment sites such as IMDB to remove or refrain from posting an actor’s age or birthdate on their info page upon request.
New state legislation requires certain entertainment sites, such as IMDb, remove (or never post) an actor’s age information upon request, effective January 1, 2017.
It’s unclear if the Constitutionality of this law is going to be challenged, but for now, you might want to start cataloging your favorite actors’ ages and birthdays while you can.
Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1687 on Saturday after it passed both the State Assembly and the State Senate easily. Most recently Renée Zellweger had to defend herself from a critic who felt she shouldn’t age or change her appearance but when it comes to lesser known actors whether you get, or are even able to audition for, a job may depend on those hiring knowing your age.
SAG (Screen Actors Guild)-AFTRA – which represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals – also issued a statement appreciating the new move.
However, opponents of the law insist it represents a violation of free speech and could lead to the demonization of factual information. “SAG-AFTRA has been working hard for years to stop the career damage caused by the publication of performers’ dates of birth on online subscription websites used for casting like IMDb…”
Noah Theran, spokesman for the Internet Association, said Sunday that the organization remains “disappointed” in the law. In fact, a woman sued IMDB a few years ago for revealing that she was actually older than she looked, believing (probably correctly) that it would put her career in jeopardy.
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The bill had cleared the state Assembly last month with broad support from Democrats, but some California Republicans said the law would do little to alleviate actual age discrimination in the industry.
