Shortly after Ben Affleck recorded some beer commercials, he checked himself into a rehab clinic for substance abuse, mainly alcohol. Naturally the commercials are now unairable. Is he legally owed any compensation for his work on the spots?
Presumably he got paid to film the commercial. This money would be in his pocket already. But in addition to that, the standard contract gives him a payment each time it’s shown on TV. If they don’t show it, he doesn’t get any money. So he gets some money, but not everything he expected.
Now whether he could be sued by the beer distributor to get the original payment back, since he took a voluntary action that made the commercial worthless… well, that’s another question.
All screen actors are subject to the current agreement with the Screen Actors Guild or its various equivalents. You HAVE to get paid for doing any sort of acting, even if it’s just “scale” (the minimum per-day wage, which varies depending on whether is a speaking part or not.)
Residuals are the monies paid for something being shown - e.g. the commercial being on TV a lot. He won’t get those, but he still has to be paid for the work.
Likewise, Madonna still got her $5 million from Pepsi, even though they pulled the plus on the commericial after only running it a few times.
That’s almost too ironic to be true. Any cites to back this up? (Not that I don’t trust you :))
This is from the Moving Hand column in The New York Times. Authoratative enough for you? 
The company that owns Samuel Adams beer has pulled radio commercials featuring BEN AFFLECK, who entered a live-in rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse last week.
“The Boston Beer Company respects Ben Affleck, his decision, and we wish him well,” the company said in a statement. The radio commercials, which promoted a screenwriting contest partly underwritten by Mr. Affleck and MATT DAMON, showed Mr. Affleck drinking with the company’s founder, JIM KOCH.
I’m not sure the commercials are unairable, after all you could argue that this is a rare instance in which you actually believe the salesperson uses and endorses the product. Sam Adams isn’t under any obligation to pull them, other than good taste and human decency, so in a nutshell, no one is breaking any agreements or being forced to do anything. (IANAL, obviously, lol)
Ooc, has anybody actually seen this/these commercial(s)? Just curious what they were like…