1. Sexual-harassment insurance is now a thing.
Lawyers drawing up agreements for studios are introducing “morality clauses” into actors’ contracts. That means that if talent commits (or, perhaps, is credibly accused of committing) misconduct, they won’t be paid. Attorney Mark Stankevich told The Post, “These riders are being strengthened to give studios full rights to terminate deals in the event of bad conduct.”
In fact, studios have always wanted these clauses, but actors’ reps refused. Now, this new movement might create hassles on both sides. For one thing, it could make it harder to get film budgets green-lit “The problem is, if the distributor has an out, it’s more difficult to get banks to lend money for projects,” said lawyer Schuyler Moore. In other words, the very inclusion of a morality clause could make lenders leery, given that distributors could choose to drop the project from its slate.
And given that morality clauses could be of the blanket variety, actors might get burned.
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