CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

IMDb Actor Age Suit Goes to Court

www.backstage.com: The civil suit launched by Huong Hoang against IMDb’s parent company Amazon goes to court in Seattle April 8 with the actor’s lawyers saying the case is not about money. Since 2011, Hoang, whose stage name is Junie Hoang, has been suing IMDb in federal court for what she says was improperly revealing her age in her online profile.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read the previous article on this and my stance has changed. She is 42 years old but looks nothing like it. I can understand how this can be extremely limited if you look a certain age but are actually much older. I am in support of her efforts to change the age posting but the quote about it "not being about money" is completely false. "It would be different if you were suing for policy changes and legal fees but with money involved it weakens her case....

Jess Bertollo said...

I don't think this lawyer is going to make any kind of change. The fact of the matter is that birth certificates are public record. If someone really wanted to know how old Ms. Hoang is all they would have to do would be to look it up. Because this information is public record the website has no legal repercussion for posting it. That being said, I don't agree with it. I, too, would be upset if a website published my birthdate and it caused me to not get hired as often.

Jess Bergson said...

I definitely agree with Jess here. I really don't think the lawyer has a case at all. Unfortunately, age is something that can result in more and more difficulty for actors. It is hard enough to land jobs as an actor when you are young and desirable to casting directors, but when you are older, this can turn casting directors away. This does not just include physical appearance. If an actor is older, and a casting director was choosing between someone who is 20 or 35, they are more likely to choose the 20 year old since they will likely have more energy and perhaps be in better shape. With that said, I sympathize with this woman. It must be really frustrating to be discriminated against due to age, especially when she looks so young!

E Young Choi said...

I agree with everyone above. Age is a big deal for the actors because as someone gets older, there is lesser chance of being in cast. That is why actors are constantly getting treatment and some sorts of surgery to look younger or same. Even for Ms. Hoang, I agree how she does not look as old as 42 and I was a bit surprised when this article said she is 42. Although if someone tries to reveal her privacy like birthday, I believe he or she can do it easily due to developed technology and penetrable information, I wish the company or the website keeps her privacy secret unless she agrees it to do so. I wish people can be more collaborating and compatible each other so that this kind of dispute does not happen again.