Fox Searchlight
Interns of the world unite? Two men who worked as unpaid interns on the set of Black Swan filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the movie’s producers, claiming the company violated minimum wage and overtime laws having such interns. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges the producers had the interns perform menial tasks expected of paid employees, and that they were not provided with the educational experience they were promised. One of the plaintiffs, Alex Footman, a 2009 Wesleyan graduate, said his responsibilities included preparing coffee for the production office, making sure the coffee pot was full, taking out the trash, and cleaning the office. Movie companies have defended the practice of having unpaid interns, and many lawyers for companies claim the Labor Department’s laws are obsolete.