How Robin Wright Negotiated Equal Pay on ‘House of Cards’

When the actress Robin Wright was negotiating a pay raise that would make her earnings for “House of Cards” equal to those of her co-star Kevin Spacey, she used a tactic that would’ve made her alter ego, Claire Underwood, proud: She leveraged her power by threatening to go public about pay inequality.

Ms. Wright, who plays a calculating first lady to Mr. Spacey’s equally ruthless President Frank Underwood on the Netflix drama, told the audience at a Rockefeller Foundation event in New York on Tuesday that she’d learned the two characters were equally popular with viewers.

“So I capitalized on it,” Ms. Wright told the room, according to The Huffington Post. “I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go public.’ ”

“And they did.”

Mr. Spacey was making $500,000 per episode in 2014, according to reports, making him one of the highest-paid actors on TV. That year, Ms. Wright won a Golden Globe Award for best actress for her work on the show. In 2015, Mr. Spacey won for best actor. That year, Forbes reported that Ms. Wright’s earnings — $5.5 million — were beginning to catch up to Mr. Spacey’s.

Ms. Wright joined a growing group of actresses who have spoken out recently on pay inequality in Hollywood, spurred in part by a rousing speech made onstage at the 2015 Oscars by Patricia Arquette. (Ms. Arquette later said she had lost roles for the comments about equal pay.)

Months later, the issue was raised again by Jennifer Lawrence, the Oscar-winning star of “Winter’s Bone,” “Joy” and the “Hunger Games” franchise. Data exposed by the Sony Pictures hack in 2014 showed that she had been paid less than her male colleagues for the film “American Hustle.”

In October, Ms. Lawrence wrote in Lena Dunham’s newsletter, Lenny: “Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper all fought and succeeded in negotiating powerful deals for themselves. If anything, I’m sure they were commended for being fierce and tactical, while I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat and not getting my fair share.”

Not all high-profile actresses believe that discussing personal pay issues in Hollywood is appropriate. In an interview with Cosmopolitan in April, Scarlett Johansson said that it would be “icky” for her to discuss her experience with Hollywood’s pay gap.

“There’s something icky about me having that conversation unless it applies to a greater whole,” she said. “I am very fortunate; I make a really good living, and I’m proud to be an actress who’s making as much as many of my male peers at this stage.”

But social media users had much applause for Ms. Wright.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/arts/ … cards.html

Good for her, a victory for feminism. Sure she plays a side character and not many would still watch if Spacey left and it was just her, but Hollywood!

Best season ever?

The top teams played like rubbish.

Jose went out off his way to get himself fired.

Van Gaal continued showing his true colours.

Liverpool tried to get by after selling Suarez by buying mid table players from Southampton.

Pellegrini checked out when City announced he'd be out off the job next season, with half the league to play.

...And Arsenal bottled what should have been an easy league title win.

EPL just made a mockery out of English people mocking La Liga.

Thanks for posting, but remember next time to post all DJ related threads in the Ex Members section so most of us will never read it!

By who?