Althought not particularly related to Music Row or the music industry in general, I find this little tidbit of news interesting, if not a bit entertaining, and I wanted to share it.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that Ken Osmond, the actor who portrayed Eddie Haskell in the sitcom “Leave It to Beaver,” has filed suit agaisnt the Screen Actors Guild.
The class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of over 30,000 actors. It accuses SAG of unjust enrichment and violations of California’s business code, and alleges that the union is sitting on $8.1 million that it collected from foreign royalties and should distribute to actors.
The suit alleges that since 1996, SAG collected foreign royalties for use of TV and movie productions in the form of levies for video rentals, private copying, cable transmissions, among other things, for which it has not accounted. It further contends that the guild has collected more than $8 million but paid out only about $250,000.
Osmond played the contrite and smug Eddie Haskell on “Leave It To Beaver” in the 1950s and 1960s. After that, he worked as a Los Angeles police officer, but has since retired.
