EXCLUSIVE
(Updated: 4:23 PM, 06/17/10) One of the biggest movie sites in the world, IMDb.com, is facing a hornet's nest of controversy over its policy of publishing the ages of actors and writers who say it leads to ageism, TheWrap has learned.
The Writers Guild of America, West, is leading an effort to convince the massive database -- used by virtually everyone in Hollywood and far beyond -- to permit people to remove their birth dates from the site.
"The Guild has a contract with IMDb to provide credits information and does not release information on age," Neal Sacharow, a spokesperson for the WGA, told TheWrap. "We have raised our concerns with IMDb about its listing of ages."
Representatives from Hollywood guilds including the Screen Actors Guild have reached out to the site to see about taking down the birth dates of people who are not movie stars like Angelina Jolie or Leonardo DiCaprio, according to an individual knowledgeable about the talks. (A spokeswoman for SAG declined to comment.)
The guilds argue that not just writers and actors, but also below-the-line workers as they crest 40 face fewer job opportunities in a business that tends to prefer 25 year olds. Listing their ages publicly is exacerbating the situation, they say.
But IMDb isn't eager to make the change, according to people knowledgeable about the disagreement.
Part of the issue seems to be a cultural one. IMDb comes from internet culture, which is data-focused and oriented to revealing everything imaginable (though not from a corporate perspective -- just try to find a phone number for Google). Meanwhile, veterans of the entertainment industry are not particularly tech-savvy and often fearful of the reveal-all nature of the web.
(Update: Giving credence to claims that it is notoriously difficult to amend or remove personal information on IMDb, a television producer and entertainment agent both contacted TheWrap after this article was published to relay their own difficulties convincing the database to edit profiles.
The producer said that the age listed on their profile was incorrect, but that the site had not responded to an email asking them to remove that information, as well as a personal email address. The producer had even considered retaining a lawyer to try to pressure IMDb to take down the information
“I could never get anybody on the phone,” the producer told TheWrap. “It doesn’t seem fair that some profiles don’t have this information. Why do I want people to see where I was born.”
The agent said that two clients had incorrect ages listed on their profiles and had similar problems trying to get IMDb to amend their information. In the case of one of client, who was listed as being eight years older than he actually was, not even photocopies of a birth certificate and passport were sufficient to compel the database to change the listed age.
