The unpaid interns for the hit movie Black Swan have banded together to sue the producers for — get this — not being paid. The strange news about the lawsuit landed the group a featured spotlight segment on Anderson Cooper 360 September 29th, 2011.
Two interns are suing the studio for being forced to do things as interns that they thought were beneath them. What shocking things were they forced to do while working for the production studios?
They were asked to make coffee for the cast and crew, to pick up lunch that had been paid for and ordered by the studio execs, and according to them they, “did not learn anything interesting”.
Anderson Cooper said he did not want to get into a labor dispute over the issue, but thought the entire premise of it was ridiculous. He thinks the intern experience is what you make of it. Joking that interns do more slacking before 11am while developing real life job skills than most people do all day.
His philosophy when it comes to internships?
Do learn as much as you can and make as many contacts as you can… then, don’t sue those contacts or try to use what you know against them.
Smart thinking. No wonder Americans are viewed as greedy and lazy.
Suing for not being paid as an unpaid intern? Positively crazy.
Anderson Cooper is a well-known green celebrity who really impact his generation with coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Haiti. When earthquakes struck, Cooper made the trek to the third world country to cover the story with heartfelt empathy for the citizens of the island country. Recently attacked and beaten with his camera crew while reporting on the government crisis in Egypt, Cooper showed true grit and dedication to his job as a reporter. He has not quit his job; rather, he’s continued to step up to the plate covering human rights as an advocate for freedom, truth, and personal liberty.
His toughest challenge to date, however, has not been related to his chosen career as a truth-telling journalist. It was eating brussels sprouts and drinking coffee. Click here to see the hilarious videos of Anderson Cooper confronting his coffee fears.
His parting shot to the Black Swan interns? If they really wanted an internship without traditional intern responsibilities, they could apply to work for the Ridiculist — because with him as boss, he never drinks coffee.
A nice joke to tell on National Coffee Day — which America predominately slept through on the 29th of September.