T(y)ranny Triumphant: Zhe Who Controls the Past…

“The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.” And the left’s finest trick is to persuade you that a man in a dress is a woman. In last week’s column, I covered tranny domination of women’s sports. This week, it’s the entertainment industry…and a lawsuit against Amazon you might not know about.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), owned by Amazon, is the online bible of the entertainment industry. It’s the who’s-who resource used by networks, studios, producers, directors, agents, managers, and everyone else who matters. For actors, their IMDb page is their calling card. It’s what casting directors consult when considering someone for a role.

As a rule, “undiscovered” actresses never tell people their true age. I can’t blame them. In this business, 25 is considered over-the-hill. And 30? Pack it in, granny. If you’re an actress who’s yet to attain the job security of an A-lister, it’s best to keep ’em guessing about how old you are.

In January 2005, my lapsed Mormon girlfriend Amanda woke up to find her birthdate posted on her IMDb profile. Catastrophe, as she was 25, and her Logan’s Run palm flower had just changed to black. IMDb had added Amanda’s birthdate (without her consent) after discovering it on an LDS-run website of Mormon actors. Amazon’s Seattle HQ told me point-blank that unless I could show that the birthdate was wrong, there was no way it would be removed.

Accurate information, no matter how it was added or by whom, is never removed from IMDb. That policy, Amazon told me, is ironclad and inflexible.

In the following years, I began noticing stories in the trades involving actresses who’d tried to get birthdates and other personal data removed from their IMDb page, only to be similarly rebuffed. IMDb’s “no removal of accurate data” policy soon attracted the attention of stalkers and jilted suitors. What better revenge against that actress who rejected you than to tell the entire industry her true age or birth name?

Year after year, Amazon/IMDb refused to bend. Accurate data is not removed, even if it was added maliciously. Women have no consent in the matter.

Enter Junie Hoang, a Vietnamese-American actress who, as Asian women often do, looks way younger than her age. Hoang had a steady if unimpressive list of movie credits…until IMDb queered the deal by adding her birthdate to her profile. Turns out Hoang was much older than she’d been letting on. And once IMDb added the birthdate, producers and casting directors stopped calling. The work dried up, and in 2011 Hoang sued Amazon and IMDb.

The depositions from the case are not available online, but I have copies courtesy of one of the involved parties. Let’s examine a few key moments from those depositions (viewable in full here).

Adrian Garver from Amazon’s legal department was deposed in August 2012. Hoang’s attorney asked Garver how many times, during his seven years as Amazon’s IMDb counsel, had women threatened legal action because their birthdate had been added to their profile against their will.

Garver: I really don’t know. I don’t have a specific number.

Attorney: All right. So would it be more than one in those seven years?

Garver: Yes.

Attorney: More than five in the seven years?

Garver: Probably, yes.

Attorney: More than ten in the seven years?

Garver: Quite likely.

Attorney: More than fifteen in the seven years?

Garver: I don’t know. Possibly.

Attorney: Can you recall a time in the last seven years where you were involved in a case where a date of birth was removed because of a complaint?

Garver: To my memory, no.

Next up was Giancarlo Cairella (also deposed in August 2012), who claimed to be IMDb’s customer-service rep until Hoang’s attorney pointed out that his LinkedIn page also lists Amazon as his employer (this is part of a pattern during the case of Amazon trying to separate itself from the actions of its subsidiary). Cairella explained why the birthdates were never removed:

Cairella: Well, our policies generally are that if information is correct, we don’t remove it…. We would remove anything incorrect, and that’s about it.

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