Hollywood doesn't blink at paying top dollar for the right actor in a movie deal, but a federal proposal for media companies to reveal their stars' salaries has studios crying "cut!" CBS Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc. are among the media companies asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to drop a proposal that would require them to tell the world how much they pay their top-earning non-executives such as actors and TV news anchors.| Every other industry is required by the media to disclose its salary structures; every time they try to weasel out of such disclosures they are hounded by Dateline NBC, 20/20, and 60 Minutes and accused of coverups. |
The entertainment industry is abuzz over the so-called "Katie Couric" clause in a broad SEC plan for publicly traded companies to give shareholders more information about multimillion-dollar salaries. The designation comes from "Today" show co-host Couric, who is leaving NBC at the end of May to join CBS as anchor and managing editor of "The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" for a reported salary of $15 million over five years. The SEC proposal -- aimed mainly at prying loose more information on the pay of top corporate officers -- also would force companies to disclose salary figures for up to three workers whose compensation exceeds that of its top executives. Companies protesting the SEC plan, which also include DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., and News Corp., insist that the salary structure for high-paid talent is too complex and irrelevant to shareholders. The new rule also might scare away high-profile individuals who prefer to keep their financial terms private, the companies say.| "Our salaries are ever so complex, it's a acting thing, you wouldn't understand. Our accounting methods are so obscure that nearly every single accountant and entertainment industry exec should go to jail for at least ten years. Plus, we know better than all of you peasants. Only evil capitalists need to disclose their ill-gotten gains. Us noble socialists are secure in our legitimate rights to privacy and prosperity." |
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