Ken Osmond, 64, the actor who played troublemaker Eddie Haskell on "Leave It to Beaver," has sued the Screen Actors Guild, claiming the union collected $8.1 million in foreign royalites and owes that money to the actors. He says they've only paid out $250,000 of the total owed.
His lawsuit is seeking class-action status for the approximate 30,000 union members, saying SAG has violated the California business code while enriching itself.
According to Osmond, the Screen Actors Guild has been collecting foreign royalty money since 1996 on a variety of platforms, including video rentals levies and cable transmissions.
Osmond also says SAG didn't obtain the permission of actors and hadn't told them they had collected the money on their behalf.
Concerning distributing the money, the lawsuit contends "SAG stated that paying out the monies was 'complex,' and that it did not have a system in place to pay out such monies."
If that statement is found to be true, SAG will have to answer for how they could privately collect money they had no idea how to distribute.
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