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Even before its March 2012 merger with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Screen Actors Guild expressed consternation over the revelation of actors’ ages without their permission by IMDb, the premier online entertainment industry database that boasts of its commitment “to being the most complete source of film, TV and celebrity information.”

Ken Howard, SAG’s then-president, issued a press release in the fall of 2011 complaining that “IMDb publishes the actual dates of birth of thousands of actors without their consent, most of them not celebrities but rank-and-file actors whose names are unknown to the general public.” The release added, “When their actual ages then become known to casting personnel, the 10+ year age range that many of them can portray suddenly shrinks, and so do their opportunities to work.” Howard might well have added that the same held true for motion picture and television writers who,...

The Internet Movie Database, otherwise known as IMDb, and other entertainment database sites are now legally bound to remove the age of an actor if they request it. Why? It all comes down to discrimination. We know the entertainment business has always been sexist but it's also known for being ageist. Most recently Renée Zellweger had to defend herself from a critic who felt she shouldn't age or change her appearance but when it comes to lesser known actors whether you get, or are even able to audition for, a job may depend on those hiring knowing your age. A few years ago actor Junie Hoang sued IMDb for revealing her true age, which she said cost her jobs in an industry obsessed with youth. As she put it, "In the entertainment industry, youth is king." She lost, and appealed, then lost again. But SAG-aftra and others have been working...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed IMDb's trial win against Junie Hoang, neé Huong Hoang, an actress who sued the entertainment site for revealing her age. In a 2011 lawsuit, Hoang proclaimed, "In the entertainment industry, youth is king." She sought to hold the Amazon.com subsidiary liable for breaching her privacy, violating Washington's consumer protection law, and breaching the terms of an agreement she made when signing up for a professional account. In April 2013, a jury came back with nothing for Hoang. That led to an appeal which explored interesting issues including whether she got competent counsel

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Junie Hoang, the actress who sued IMDb for publishing her date of birth but lost in federal district court, has filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Hoang, whose legal name is Huong Hoang, contends in her appeal that the district court judge abused her discretion by “denying Hoang’s motion to reopen discovery after her counsel effectively abandoned her due to his debilitating and ultimately fatal illnesses.” Hoang also argues that “it was prejudicial error to instruct the jury on IMDb’s affirmative defense that Hoang had the burden to prove she was not in material breach

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Actor Junie Hoang is appealing the verdict in her long-running lawsuit against IMDb and has SAG-aftra's backing. Since 2011, the actor, whose legal name is Huong Hoang, has been suing IMDb and its parent company Amazon in federal court for what she says was improperly revealing her age in her online profile. In April, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of IMDb, deciding that the website didn't violate its legal obligations to the actor, who was born in 1971. In her appeal, the lawyer for Hoang, Mark A. Kressel, argued she "never really got a fair trial," in part because her first counsel died during the discovery period before submitting all the actor's evidence. "When new lead counsel discovered what occurred and filed a motion to reopen discovery, the district court denied the motion and forced Hoang to go to trial with almost no evidence," the appeal, filed Oct. 30 with the 9th Circuit,...

Junie Hoang wanted more than $1m from IMDb Pro website, claiming its revelation of her true age branded her 'over the hill'

A 42-year-old actor who claimed she lost out on movie roles after the Internet Movie Database published her real age has lost a landmark lawsuit against the website.

Texan Huong "Junie" Hoang had been backed by Us acting unions in her bid to sue IMDb for breach of contract after the site used credit information and a third-party verification website to research her true age for its "Pro" subscription site, which is used extensively by Hollywood agents. A Seattle jury found yesterday that the Amazon-owned website had not breached any legal obligations to Hoang following a two-day trial.

When the actor first went to court in 2011 she did so anonymously, hoping to sue for $1m (£650,000) or more in punitive damages and $75,000 or more in compensatory damages. "If one...

It's old school etiquette that still persists: it's downright rude to ask a woman her age. It might seem silly, but there's a lot of societal pressure on women to seem young for as long as humanly possible.or longer. So asking, "how old are you?" is often a time bomb of bad social behavior. But the stakes on perceived age are even higher in Hollywood, where there are scads of roles for ingenues, but fewer and fewer parts as an actress gets older. It.s a casting trap that many actresses have to maneuver around, and according to Huong Hoang, it was one made more treacherous because of the popular resource site IMDb posting her birthdate. Hoang sued the Internet Movie Database and its parent company Amazon for publishing her age on her IMDb profile without her permission. The actress whose stage name is Junie Hoang declared that this...

Following the example of Hollywood producers and men who value not being turned to stone, a federal jury has rejected the actress who filed a lawsuit against IMDb, after the online database exposed her true age to an industry with little use for the middle-aged, save perhaps as prop cadavers on CSI. Huong Hoang—better known by her stage name “Junie Hoang” (as in “Good lord, could this wizened specimen, ostensibly unearthed from a hundred years’ sleep in a salt cellar, be Methusaleh himself? Oh wait… It’s only Junie Hoang”)—had originally sought $1 million in damages, claiming the ...

Ahh, America. Only in this country could an F-list actress even File a lawsuit over her right to lie about her age, let alone lose one.

That's the gist of "Hoodrats 2: Hoodrat Warriors" star Junie Hoang's charges against IMDb (and parent company Amazon), who according to the Daily Mail had a federal jury in Seattle say "hell no" (or words to that effect) to her claim that the database breached her privacy contract by revealing her age.

Originally filed anonymously, the case contended that IMDb failed to remove her fake year of birth (1978) at her request, and then pulled her real birthdate from public records: 1971. Unfortunately, she couldn't prove she lost any roles over the matter, but when you're starring in "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver" sounds like you can at least pay your electric bill.

"Hoang did not present any testimony, documents, or other evidence supporting...

Junie Hoang wanted more than $1m from IMDb Pro website, claiming its revelation of her true age branded her 'over the hill'

A 42-year-old actor who claimed she lost out on movie roles after the Internet Movie Database published her real age has lost a landmark lawsuit against the website.

Texan Huong "Junie" Hoang had been backed by Us acting unions in her bid to sue IMDb for breach of contract after the site used credit information and a third-party verification website to research her true age for its "Pro" subscription site, which is used extensively by Hollywood agents. A Seattle jury found yesterday that the Amazon-owned website had not breached any legal obligations to Hoang following a two-day trial.

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A jury has decided against actor Huong Hoang in her suit against IMDb. Since 2011, Hoang, whose stage name is Junie Hoang, has been suing IMDb and its parent company Amazon in federal court for what she says was improperly revealing her age in her online profile. The civil trial started in federal court in Seattle April 8. On Wednesday, the jury heard closing arguments and received their final instructions from judge Marsha Pechman. They rendered a verdict in favor of IMDb on Thursday, deciding that the website didn't violate its legal obligations to the 41-year-old actor. During the trial, her legal team argued that Hoang, who took the stand, had lost work as a result of her birthdate’s publication. But IMDb contended that Hoang originally published an incorrect birth date on its website, and then later demanded that IMDb review its files to determine whether the incorrect birth date was valid.

This should be of interest to all you actors out there who read this blog.  Remember that fall 2011 lawsuit that was filed by an actress suing Amazon.com for more than $1 million for revealing her age on its Internet Movie Database website (or IMDb, which Amazon.com owns), and refusing to remove the reference when asked? The actress, who later was forced to reveal herself by the courts, and who is professionally known as Junie Hoang, accused IMDb of misusing her personal information after she signed up for the industry/paid version of the site that we use here at S&A, IMDbPro, in 2008. Shortly thereafter, she noticed her legal date of birth had been added to her public...

A Seattle jury has found against Junie Hoang in her lawsuit against IMDb for revealing her real age online. The decision came after a two-day trial. The 42-year-old actress, whose real name is Houng Hoang, first sued IMDb and parent company Amazon for $1 million back in October 2011. Soon after joining IMDb in 2008, Hoang’s age appeared on the site, information the actress claimed harmed her chances of landing film roles in a youth-centric industry. Hoang has appeared in minor roles in films Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver and Hoodrats 2: Hoodrat Warriors. She claimed the site performed record searches using her credit card information to obtain her age and did not remove the information when she requested it. As the case made its way through the courts, the claims were pared down, and Amazon was dismissed as a defendant before the breach of contract trial started. Back in late...

The civil suit launched by Huong Hoang against IMDb’s parent company, Amazon, goes to court in Seattle April 8, with the actor’s lawyers saying the case is not about money. Since 2011, Hoang, whose stage name is Junie Hoang, has been suing IMDb in federal court for what she says was improperly revealing her age in her online profile. Derek Alan Newman, an attorney with the firm Newman Du Wors Llp, which represents Hoang, said the actor wants the website to change its policy about publishing performers’ ages. “It’s not about money; it’s about IMDb changing its policy—the fact that they publish birth dates and refuse to remove or delete birth dates,” Newman told Backstage. The case has raised questions about the importance of youth in the entertainment industry. But federal judge Marsha Pechman, who’s hearing the case, has barred the plaintiff’s side from making...

Seattle -- In October, 2011, an anonymous actress sued IMDb, alleging that the publication of her age on her profile page had caused her harm. She said, "in the entertainment industry, youth is king." On Monday, 18 months later, after that actress was revealed to be Huong Hoang (aka Junie Hoang), a trial commenced in a Seattle federal court. The parties picked the jury and gave opening statements. Then, Hoang took the stand, and described her Kafkaesque attempts to get IMDb to pull down her age and why it mattered to her. "The entertainment industry is based on perception,"

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The civil suit launched by Huong Hoang against IMDb’s parent company Amazon goes to court in Seattle April 8 with the actor’s lawyers saying the case is not about money. Since 2011, Hoang, whose stage name is Junie Hoang, has been suing IMDb in federal court for what she says was improperly revealing her age in her online profile. Derek Alan Newman, an attorney with the firm Newman Du Wors Llp which represents Hoang, said the actor wants the website to change its policy about publishing performers’ ages. “It’s not about money; it’s about IMDb changing its policy—the fact that they publish birthrates and refuse to remove or delete birthrates,” Newman told Backstage. The case has raised questions about the importance of youth in the entertainment industry. But Federal Judge Marsha Pechman, who’s hearing the case, has limited the plaintiff’s side from making broad claims about ageism in Hollywood.

On Monday, actress Huong Hoang (aka Junie Hoang) will go to trial against IMDb over allegations that the website improperly revealed her age in her profile. Covering the Seattle trial for The Hollywood Reporter will be Venkat Balasubramani, a local lawyer who focuses on internet and technology issues. He is well known for his smart analysis at Eric Goldman's Technology and Marketing Law Blog. Today, he looks at what's ahead and reports some recent new developments including a judge's decision on the precipices of trial to avoid testimony about Hollywood age discrimination. Here's his first report: Background: As Eriq mentions in

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The $1 million lawsuit filed by Junie Hoang against IMDb and its parent company, Amazon, will go to trial April 8, charging a Seattle jury to decide whether IMDb violated its contract with the actor when it published her correct birthday on her profile. Hoang claims the publication, which revealed her to be 40 at the time, damaged her career in an industry rife with age discrimination. The case has brought attention to the sensitive subject of age in a business based on appearance. That IMDb could publish birthdays with impunity has touched the collective nerve of thousands of working actors who use IMDbPro to manage their careers but lack the celebrity status to compensate for their declining range with the advancing years. “Junie feels like she’s fighting for the industry,” said Derek Newman, Hoang’s attorney. “You should be cast based on merit, but with such a huge pool of people to cull from,...

Junie Hoang -- aka Huong Hoang, aka the plaintiff formerly known as Jane Doe -- will have her day in court. But it doesn't look like it will be as sunny a day as she had hoped for. The lawsuit filed by Hoang -- the actress who's suing IMDb.com and its parent company Amazon because the former revealed her age on her IMDb profile -- will go forward on April 8 as scheduled. However, a judge granted some of Amazon and IMDb's motions for summary judgment, denying one. In a ruling filed Monday...

Last night a federal judge in Seattle ruled that a lawsuit brought by an actress who accused the online film and TV database for posting her birthdate in her bio without her permission will go to trial. U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman denied summary judgment from IMBb on Junie Hoang’s breach of contract claim (read the full ruling here), meaning the case will go forward to an April 8 trial date. The core claim makes the central issue of the case whether the site enables age discrimination in the entertainment biz with its policy of posting ages on individuals’ web pages. In the original lawsuit filed in October 2011, Huang claimed she attempted to increase her exposure on the website in 2008 by subscribing via credit card to IMDb Pro. She changed her name and didn’t reveal her age when providing information for her profile. Soon after joining, her age appeared on the site,...

A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit brought against the Internet Movie Database by actress Huong Hoang, whose age was listed by the site against her wishes, will proceed to trial. Barring a last-minute settlement, the ruling sets the stage for an April 8 date in a Seattle federal courtroom. In a ruling filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Marsha Percham denied Hoang's motion for summary judgment. Percham also denied IMDb's motion for summary judgment on a breach of contract claim, in which IMDb argued that the 41-year-old Hoang -- who goes by the stage name Junie Hoang -- provided the site

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Huong Hoang, the actress suing the Internet Movie Database for revealing her age, is scheduled to bring her claims before a jury in a federal courtroom in Seattle beginning April 8. According to her pretrial statement, she won't be alone in attempting to hold the Amazon.com affiliate liable for costing her jobs in Hollywood. Hoang's lawyers want to bring nine other actors and actresses onto the witness stand to testify about their own efforts to get IMDb to remove birth dates.

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One day in early October, actress Nicole Bilderback, who has had roles in films like “Bring it On” and “Clueless,” woke up, turned on her computer, and was shocked to discover that her inbox was flooded with messages from friends and family. They were all concerned that Ms. Bilderback was the anonymous woman who was suing IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, for the whopping sum of $1 million for revealing her accurate age: 40.

The media firestorm surrounding the case underscores the power of IMDb,...

Junie Hoang, the actress suing the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for revealing her age, will see her day -- and perhaps two days -- in court next year. Also read: IMDb "Jane Doe" Plaintiff Reveals Her Real Name Court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday have set a Jan. 7, 2013 court date for the trial. The filing indicates that the trial is expected to last one or two days. Discovery on the trial must be completed by August 10, 2012. Also read: IMDb's "Jane Doe" Plaintiff Junie Hoang: 5...

Film's favourite Pm, David Cameron, stepped in to give his views on what sort of features deserve lottery funding – the big ones

The big story

What sort of British films do we want? Or, more specifically, what sort of British films does David Cameron want? More commercial, big-box-office ones it seems, as the prime minister carefully primed the media for the publication of the government's film policy review. His "remarks" were fed to the press overnight, in advance of his visit to the James Bond studios at Pinewood – leading to immediate suggestions that garlanded veterans like Mike Leigh were "finished". More films like The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire, please, said Cameron – but, as Peter Bradshaw pointed out, when politicians meddle in film-making, disaster is never far away. Perhaps Cameron could reflect on what might happen to a film he claimed to admire, Lindsay Anderson's If..., if it had it been around today.

With the January 6 amended complaint filed against IMDb.com and Amazon.com, the world finally knows who the infamous "Jane Doe" -- who's suing because IMDb revealed her age on the site -- is. But how well do we really know Junie Hoang (nee Huong Hoang), the woman behind the name behind the lawsuit? We all know that she's 40 years old, we all know that she's not crazy about the fact that we know that fact, and we've all thrilled to...

Claimant in landmark suit backed by actors' unions told by Us judge to reveal her name in order to take case forward

The actor suing the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for publishing her real age in a potentially landmark case that unions say has powerful ramifications for the capacity of Hollywood to discriminate against older stars has been revealed as 40-year-old Texan Junie Hoang following a court's ruling.

Hoang had wanted to take the film database to court anonymously in a suit which is being backed by the Us's major acting unions. However, a Us district judge in Seattle said last month that she would need to use her real name to take the case forward.

Hoang received strong support for her position from the Screen Actors Guild (Sag) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Aftra) last year. She argues that the site had no right to publish...

Megan Mullally has confirmed that the Party Down movie is a go, and that she will be a part of it when it starts shooting late spring. The entire cast is expected back with the possible exception of Jane Lynch.

At the winter TCAs, Fox confirmed that while the seniors are graduating on Glee, there will not be a spin-off, and all the characters will be returning next year. “There will not be a Glee spinoff,” Reilly continued, “but those characters will graduate and it’s led to a very interesting idea that I think is going to really give us something cool to dig into next season.”

The same briefing finally officially stuck a stake in the heart of Allen Gregory.

Plus, Fox is starting up a digital department similar to Adult Swim, staffed by former Adult Swim executives, to create adult animated content for their late-night Saturday block...

Seattle — An actress who filed an anonymous lawsuit against Amazon.com and its Internet Movie Database for revealing her age identified herself in a federal court filing Friday.

Huong Hoang of Texas, may be better known by her stage name, Junie Hoang. She has appeared in such films as "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver" and "Hoodrats 2: Hoodrat Warriors."

The actress filed a million-dollar claim against Amazon last fall, saying the company mined her IMDb account to learn her age, 40, and then posted it on her profile – causing her offers for roles to dry up.

The lawsuit caused a frenzy of online speculation over who the actress might be – as well as a bit of soul-searching about ageism in youth-obsessed Hollywood.

Women over 40 make up 24.3 percent of the U.S. population, but a casting analysis by the Screen Actors Guild showed actresses over 40 get just 12.5 percent of roles for television and film.

A U.S. District judge in Seattle last month ordered the anonymous actress suing IMDb for age discrimination to use her name on the lawsuit — or it couldn’t go forward. So today, Huong Hoang (pictured) who acts using the stage name Junie Hoang, amended and refiled the $1 million suit using her real name. Hoang originally sued IMDb and parent company Amazon as Jane Doe, alleging that the popular online film and TV database posted her age (40) on the site without her permission, after which time offers for younger roles decreased in frequency (her posted resume on the site says she can play ages 26-33). The lawsuit spurred reaction from Hollywood guilds, who took up Huong’s fight as an example of age discrimination for actors in the entertainment industry. IMDb and Amazon eventually denied any wrongdoing, and the Seattle judge said the complaint couldn’t go forward without a legal name on it.

The actress who had anonymously sued IMDb.com and its owner, Amazon.com, for posting her age has revealed her name in an amended complaint against the companies. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, identifies the actress as Huong Hoang -- though the complaint notes, "Prior to and throughout her acting career, Plaintiff has only and always presented herself to the public by her American stage name, Junie Hoang." Read the full amended complaint here. Hoang (pictured) is seeking $1 million from the companies for revealing her age in her profile, which...

The actress suing IMDb for revealing her real age has now revealed her real name in a new court filing. Huong Hoang is the actress who sued claiming the internet search database had violated her right of privacy and opened her up to rampant age discrimination in Hollywood by telling everyone she's 40 years old. She says in an amended complaint filed today in Washington that she typically goes by her Americanized stage name, Junie Hoang, because her Asian name is difficult to pronounce and has led to discrimination in Hollywood. Texas-based...