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Fox and Glee producers not safeguarding their series, Extra takes the fall

Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk at the 2011 Paley Fest. Pic credit: ©ImageCollect.com/admedia

A bit player has caused a firestorm of negative press and even career threats over her tweeting some key plot points about “Glee,” a major Fox series created by Ryan Murphy.

Nicole Crowther, hired as an extra on “Glee,” tweeted the prom king and queen news, which we will not divulge here despite being published on some major entertainment news sites.

The breach caused Brad Falchuk to respond (using social media!) to Crowther:

BradFalchuk Tweeted:

@nicolecrowther Who are you to spoil something talented people have spent months to create?

@nicolecrowther hope you’re qualified to do something besides work in entertainment.

But wouldn’t you expect a big production like “Glee” with major spoilers to have non-disclosure agreements signed by everyone from the crafty to the lead actors? In this day and age of smart phones and obsessive Twittering, Facebooking and snapping off photos and video surreptitiously?

Crowther has since been fired from the show. The standard SAG day-player union contract does not contain a non-disclosure agreement which provides punishment when plot details are made public.

So the fall goes to the extra, who was not thinking about the big picture repercussions as she was doing what so many people do, Tweeting, Twitpic-ing and chatting on social media, excited about her work day.

Question of the day: If you were hiring actors and having people on your set while sensitive scenes are being shot, would you confiscate laptops, phones and any devices that can transmit information? Would you make people sign NDA’s? Would you impose monetary fines on people who break the contracts?

Talk back.

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