'Mona Lisa Smile' Producers Settle Suit
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Producers of the feminist-themed movie "Mona Lisa Smile" (search) have agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the federal government on behalf of 19 female musicians who were paid less than their male counterparts.
Each of the female musicians will receive $3,500 from Revolution Studios and Smile Productions LLC, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday. The total settlement is worth a total of $66,500.
A lawyer for the producers, who did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, did not immediately return a message for comment.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Commission attorney Stella N. Yamada said the case drew the agency's attention to the entertainment industry, where workers such as musicians might work just three days, as did the women who worked on the score for "Mona Lisa Smile."
In the 2003 movie, Julia Roberts (search) plays a free-spirited art teacher who confronts repression at a 1950s women's college, where students seem more interested in finding a husband than in learning.