Telephone Number Damages

[Gareth Branwyn]

I've heard of "telephone number salaries," but never this. The sci-fi
author John Shirley sent telephone number salary to Jargon Watch about
five years ago when he was selling a lot of scripts to Hollywood (The
Crow, VR5). He said he'd heard it frequently used there. He also sent me
"spam," a term used in horror films for the cheap extras who are there
simply to be eaten by the monster. I love that!

One might assume that there are a number of these "telephone number X"
forms for anything with a seven-digit figure.

Gareth

"James A. Landau" wrote:
>
> Slate on-line magazine reported today that
>
> <begin quote>
> Supermodel Naomi Campbell won a pyrrhic victory earlier this week when a British high-court judge found that the tabloid Daily Mirror had breached her right to privacy when it published details of her treatment for drug addiction, but he also declared that Campbell lacked "frankness and veracity," that she was "manipulative," and that she had lied under oath during the trial. As far as the British media were concerned, the narrow basis for the decision and the modest damages awarded to Campbell ($3,500 for the breach of confidence and another $1,500 in aggravated damages for a separate Mirror article that compared her to a "chocolate soldier") represented a victory for press freedom.
>
> <snip>
>
> The Guardian declared that the "flood of initial right to privacy cases may slow to a trickle as celebrities realise they are unlikely to be awarded telephone number damages for perceived breaches of privacy."
> <end quote>
>
>     Jim Landau
>     Systems engineer
>     FAA Technical Center (ACB-510/BCI)
>     Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA