the shonda rhimes ticket story is also a labor story i think
The Hollywood Reporter interview with Shonda Rhimes from yesterday is fascinating especially because it opens with that horrifying factoid about what ultimately pushed Shonda, one of show biz’s most valuable showrunners, to leave ABC for Netflix three years ago.
It’s freakin incredible. At first glance, you might look at this whole Disneyland pass issue from the POV of “well, why would a multi-millionaire NEED to get a free amusement park ticket,” sure, but factor in Rhimes’ status as a groundbreaking creative plus um holy shit what that exec said to her, and consider how unnervingly close this gets to having one of the most powerful Black women in pop culture being told to know her place. (Could you imagine this happening to Darren Star or Ryan Murphy? Not easily!)
I think additionally you could also read this through a workplace/labor relations lens, because of course it isn’t about a $154 ticket. It’s about the way an employer treated an employee who has created literally billions of dollars in value for the company. (Does this mean that only the big name employees should get perks and special treatment, i.e. the Toobins of the world? No!!! But it’s obvious that the seemingly simple goal to make people who create value for you feel valued in return is a struggle even at the uppermost tiers of media and entertainment).
Reading this Shonda interview reminded me a lot about this 2016 piece from ESPN (<- a phrase I type roughly once every two years) about how Nike lost Steph Curry to Under Amour. As with the situation with Shonda, it was the small things — not the size of the contract, not the degree of autonomy or creative freedom involved, that kind of thing — but basic diligence and respect that lost Nike this enormous opportunity.
I’ll always remember this part:
The pitch meeting, according to Steph's father Dell, who was present, kicked off with one Nike official accidentally addressing Stephen as "Steph-on," the moniker, of course, of Steve Urkel's alter ego in Family Matters. "I heard some people pronounce his name wrong before," says Dell Curry. "I wasn't surprised. I was surprised that I didn't get a correction."
It got worse from there. A PowerPoint slide featured Kevin Durant's name, presumably left on by accident, presumably residue from repurposed materials. "I stopped paying attention after that," Dell says. Though Dell resolved to "keep a poker face," throughout the entirety of the pitch, the decision to leave Nike was in the works.
Imagine. IMAGINE. (God, when my day job was making client decks, I had regular nightmares about pulling a flub like that). In the larger narrative of late capitalism’s impact on workplace/employer relations, both of these stories should become codified in corporate lore as The Most Expensive And Yet Avoidable Mistakes To Make when dealing with star talent (and especially groundbreaking Black talent). Maybe it’s weird to think of Shonda and Steph as fellow workers with whom the rest of us can feel a sense of solidarity , but that sinking sense of wait, why is X company acting like it is a high supreme privilége to be **allowed** to work for them? We’ve all been there.
Deez Links is a dailyish newsletter written by delia cai.