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Are you a talent agency or management company that isn’t quite ready to have an in-house business affairs department but still wants to protect your clients? Do you have an in-house business affairs department that doesn’t have the resources to turn agreements around quickly? We can help!
Need help negotiating and drafting an actor, below-the-line, director, producer, production services, rights acquisition or writer agreement? We have decades of experience at the highest level.
Do you have a platform and want to license content from creators? Or are you a creator who needs help navigating brand deals? We have the experience to protect your interests.
Meet Our Founder
Thora Leiken
Ms. Leiken fell in love with the entertainment industry during an internship on the Paramount Pictures lot in college. Her experience as an attorney includes:
· Starting her career at talent agencies, including 14 years at United Talent Agency, where she handled agreements for A-list actors, rights acquisition agreements for best-selling novels (including a very well-known book about teen vampires), overall deals for showrunners and agreements for top writers, among other contracts.
· Leading business and legal affairs for a Silicon Valley-based livestreaming startup, including negotiating licensing and vendor agreements and creating standardized agreement templates (such as co-production, non-disclosure and talent agreements for deals with high profile athletes, gamers and music artists).
· Working at a subsidiary of Fox Entertainment handling development agreements, overseeing production legal matters and, in collaboration with the Fox Privacy Department, leading compliance with privacy statutes, including the California Privacy Rights Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (European Union and United Kingdom).
Ms. Leiken graduated cum laude from the University of Redlands and received her juris doctor from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
She is admitted to the State Bar of California.
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BLOGS
BLOG ONE
In August of 2022, as the entertainment industry struggled to rebound from COVID restrictions and about a year before a strike that would last 118 days, SAG-AFTRA, in lieu of proposed legislation and without much fanfare, reached an agreement with the AMPTP to change exclusivity restrictions for series regulars. Applicable to agreements entered into on or after January 1, 2023, the changes are:
1. MONEY BREAKS. Under the previous language, series regulars making at least $15,000 per episode or per week on half-hour programs or $20,000 per episode or per week for one-hour or longer programs did not retain the right to do certain other work in addition to working on the series on which they were a regular. Under the new language, the amounts were increased to $65,000 for a half-hour program and $70,000 for an hour or longer program.
2. PERMITTED APPEARANCES. Under the old language, a series regular who was paid less than the previous money breaks could not grant exclusivity that did not permit at least three guest star appearances in each 13-week period but could agree that none of the appearances would be in a continuing role. Under the new language, a series regular paid less than the new, higher money breaks may not grant exclusivity that does not permit:
a. Non-Dramatic Appearances: Unlimited second position radio guest appearances and unlimited second position guest appearances on talk shows, game shows, news, panel and award shows but may agree that none of these appearances can be in a continuing role.
b. Unlimited Guest Star Appearances: Unlimited second position guest star appearances on live action and animated television and new media programs, including an unlimited number of continuing roles, provided that such continuing roles are not for more than six episodes in the same season of a series or miniseries.
c. Second Position Series Regular or Miniseries Lead: Either one second position series regular role or one second position leading role in a miniseries each calendar year.
3. CONDITIONS ON PERMITTED APPEARANCES.
a. Series Producer in First Position: Except for the “Conflict Free Window” noted below, the series producer remains in first position, meaning that the series producer in first position has approval over the permitted appearance, and the series regular must confirm availability before accepting the second position appearance. The series producer in first position may only exercise its first position rights for legitimate, work-related reasons.
b. No “Substantially Similar” Role: The series producer in first position may not allow an otherwise permitted appearance if it is “substantially similar” to the series regular’s first position role. “Common, generic attributes without further distinction” are not sufficient to establish substantial similarity. The “distinct, identifiable and detailed characteristics and storyline(s) of the performer’s character” must be considered in making the determination.
c. No Irreversible Changes to Appearance: Voluntary changes to the series regular’s appearance that are not readily reversible are not permitted.
d. No Parody: The second position permitted appearance may not parody the first position series producer, role, series or platform.
e. Promotional Materials: Series regulars may appear in promotional materials for a permitted appearance provided that their name and/or likeness does not appear either alone or more prominently than any other performer in any key art or in any photography in the promotional materials.
f. Time Period Restriction: The series producer in first position may not allow an otherwise permitted appearance that, to the best of the series regular’s knowledge, is scheduled to air during the regularly-scheduled time period of the first position series.
g. Cooperation Requirement: The series producer in first position may not use any of the above restrictions for automatic refusal of a permitted appearance and must give good faith consideration to the series regular’s request. The series producer in first position must maintain records of such requests and the responses thereto that SAG-AFTRA may review.
4. “CONFLICT FREE WINDOW”. The series producer in first position must provide series regulars with a “Conflict Free Window” after completion of principal photography of each season during which the series regular may accept a permitted appearance without first having to confirm availability with the series producer in first position. The conditions for a permitted appearance noted above still apply. The “Conflict Free Window” need not be the same dates or the same period of time for each series regular. However, a Conflict Free Window does not have to be provided if the hiatus between the completion of principal photography for a season and the commencement of principal photography for the following season is less than four months.
a. Three Month Minimum: The Conflict Free Window must be at least three consecutive months. However, the series producer in first position must use reasonable good faith efforts to provide a longer Conflict Free Window whenever possible.
b. 30-Day Advance Notice: The series producer in first position must provide notice at least 30 days in advance of the start of the Conflict Free Window.
c. Best Efforts to be Available: During the Conflict Free Window, the series regular will use best efforts to make themselves available for work on the first position series, including promotional services.
d. Permitted Appearance Must Be Completed: The series regular must complete the services for a permitted appearance during the Conflict Free Window. Services outside the Conflict Free Window are subject to first position rights.
e. Penalty: If the series producer in first position does not provide a series regular with a Conflict Free Window as provided above, the series producer must pay the series regular a penalty equal to the series regular’s episodic fee for the prior season. The penalty is subject to the episodic cap for benefit plan contributions.