According to TMZ, the cast of «Modern Family» wants out of their current contracts for the show — all in a bold move to score much fatter paychecks.
The cast members — Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet and Sofia Vergara — just filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox TV, demanding their contracts be declared null and void. According to the lawsuit, the contracts violate a «7 year» law in California that bars personal service contracts with a duration longer than 7 years. As a result, the cast wants them tossed out presumably so they can renegotiate for more money.
The cast also wants the freedom to pursue other acting gigs outside «Modern Family» and Fox — a freedom that’s severely curtailed by their current contracts. It’s the latest in the bitter salary negotiations between the cast members and 20th Century Fox.
How much they are worth? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox recently made an offer to increase the cast’s salary as follows: $150,000 per episode plus a $50,000 per episode bonus for season 4; $200,000 per episode for season 5, $225,000 for season 6, and up to $325,000 for an anticipated season 9. But the cast reportedly rejected the offer and is now demanding much more money.
Modern Family scored 14 Emmy nominations, including a nod for each of the cast members named in the suit.
Coincidentally, Forbes listed Sofia Vergara topping the list of the best paid actresses on television. Professionally speaking, her ABC hit, Modern Family, is averaging 12 million viewers in its third season, a slew of endorsement and licensing deals keep paychecks fat and LatinWE, the media company she cofounded in 1996, just had a top-earning year with $27 million in revenues. Forbes estimates Vergaraa[euro](TM)s earnings between May 2011 and May 2012 at $19 million, not bad for a farmera[euro](TM)s daughter from Barranquilla, Colombia.
