Can Hollywood handle the truth — about an actress’s age?
A trial now under way in Seattle is seeking to answer that question in the case of a sexy 41-year-old B-movie performer who is suing a popular film Web site for ruining her dreams of stardom by publicizing her true age.
Junie Hoang says she has been struggling for years to make it to the top in Tinseltown, with little luck.
After nearly two decades in the business, her biggest roles were in films such as “Zombie Postwoman in Z: A Zombie Musical.”
Hoang claims that all hope of putting such low-grade fare behind her and joining the A-list ended when the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Web site violated her privacy and posted her real age on its site.
In her $1 million suit — which is being heard this week — Hoang claims discrimination is so bad in Hollywood that hiding one’s age is vital.
“In the entertainment industry, youth is king,” she said in her civil complaint. “If one is perceived to be ‘over-the-hill,’ i.e. approaching 40, it is nearly impossible for an up-and-coming actress . . . to get work.”
Showbiz workers and fans alike rely on IMDb to find credits and biographical information for thousands of actors and actresses.
The Houston native hoped to take advantage of the site by logging on under a friend’s account and putting up a bogus birth date that was seven years younger than her true birth date of July 16, 1971.
But when Hoang later signed up for the paid service of IMDb Pro, the Web site used her credit-card information to track down her real age and post it to her profile in 2011, she claims.
Though IMDb said it double-checked the birth date info with a publicly available database, Hoang clams the age publication was a violation of her privacy and that the site owes her damages for the harm the revelation did to her chances of getting roles.
The case is being closely watched by legal experts who believe it will have an impact on the practice of “data mining,” in which companies collect private info for commercial purposes.
Hoang has the backing of her actors union, which has long criticized IMDb for posting accurate ages.
Though IMDb has conceded it used Hoang’s subscriber information to discover her real age, it argues that the truth should trump all of Hoang’s claims.
The civil action is being litigated in federal court in Seattle because it is home of IMDb’s parent company, Amazon.
With Times of London and Post Wire Services