Actress who sued Amazon over age IDs herself

Actress who sued Amazon over age IDs herself


By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) -- An actress who filed an anonymous lawsuit against Amazon.com and its Internet Movie Database for revealing her age identified herself in a federal court filing Friday.

Huong Hoang of Texas, may be better known by her stage name, Junie Hoang. She has appeared in such films as "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver" and "Hoodrats 2: Hoodrat Warriors."

The actress filed a million-dollar claim against Amazon last fall, saying the company mined her IMDb account to learn her age, 40, and then posted it on her profile - causing her offers for roles to dry up.

The lawsuit caused a frenzy of online speculation over who the actress might be - as well as a bit of soul-searching about ageism in youth-obsessed Hollywood.

Women over 40 make up 24.3 percent of the U.S. population, but a casting analysis by the Screen Actors Guild showed actresses over 40 get just 12.5 percent of roles for television and film. Men of that age are also about a quarter of the population, but nearly equal their ranks in casting.

Last month a federal judge in Seattle ordered the lawsuit dismissed, saying the actress had no grounds to proceed with an anonymous complaint. Hoang refiled it under her real name.

She did not immediately return an email seeking comment, nor did her lawyer immediately return a voice message left after business hours.

A lawyer and a spokeswoman for Amazon also did not immediately return calls.

Hoang's IMDb profile says she got her start in dance at 16, was the salutatorian of her high school class and earned a degree in biomedical science from Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine. It lists her at 5-foot-2, 100 pounds, and suggests she can play characters ages 26-33.

She played Sandy in "Gingerdead Man 3," a sequel to a 2005 Gary Busey movie in which "an evil yet adorable gingerbread man comes to life with the soul of a convicted killer," according to a description on IMDb.

Other credits include a part as a triage nurse in the television series "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," and as the part of Janet in "My Big Phat Hip Hop Family."

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