Porn actress files complaint against union
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An obscure porn film actress is grabbing Hollywood's attention these days with her off-camera moans -- as in complaints, that is.
Dalny Marga Valdes, star of such films as "Dirty Debutantes," and "More Dirty Debutantes," says she gets no respect in the film world and is being denied membership in the powerful Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
So the 29-year-old veteran of 70 raunchy films in three years has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against SAG, the 90,000-member union once led by former actor Ronald Reagan.
Valdes said Thursday she wants the NLRB to validate her claim that she's more than a pretty face etc. and declare she's an artist eligible for SAG membership.
In Hollywood, porn stars are not unionized, and their work doesn't earn them the necessary credentials to join SAG. But porn stars can become card-carrying SAG members if they supplement their hard-core work with roles in mainstream movies.
"They call us independent contractors but I'm an actress," said Valdes.
She said she talked to NLRB investigators this week, charging that SAG had rejected her because of "arbitrary, unfair, capricious, invidious and discriminatory reasons."
And that's just for starters:
"I'm the best star in the business," she told Reuters. She is angered by both SAG and the porn producers who refuse to pay her $10,000 per film.
But is she a labor heroine and exploited worker? Some colleagues see it differently.
"This woman is a B-actress, at best," said Susan Yannetti, spokeswoman for Vivid Video, which produces adult videos and films in California. "She's someone who is constantly rocking the boat in this business."
"You have to get a (mainstream) part to get a card," said John Lee, president of Alpha International, an adult film production company based in Los Angeles. "(SAG) doesn't discriminate at all...I've never known an instance where a (porn) actor has had to lodge a complaint," he added.
SAG membership is crucial because it allows actors to make royalties, even when they work in the porn industry, which pays one-time salaries and excludes actors from future profits.
Valdes says that predicament has left her "destitute" after making five porn films this summer.
She claims the productions, which are distributed to big cable TV outlets, could make millions, but she won't see a penny beyond the few hundred dollars she was paid.
"The money was gone in one or two days and I was still exhausted from the work," she said.
I guess you could end up in the hole in that line of work!! Sounds like she's been getting the shaft. |
