TV Writers sue networks for age discrimination II

　　A woman sitting in the audience who described herse lf as an actress and writer told the reporter that he s hould include his own age in a news story about the eve nt.

　　Even the 81-page lawsuit, filed in U.S.District Cou rt in los angeles, does not disclose marcus' exact age, describing her as "in her 70s".

　　Representatives for the major television networks c ould not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, which c laims civil rights violations and also names major holl ywood talen agencies.

　　Among those listed as defendants in the complaint a re enterainmetn giants walt disney co (NYSE:DIS-news) w hich owns the ABC-TV network, fox entertainment group i nc. (NYSE:FOX-news), time warner inc. (NYSE:TWX-news), viacom(NYSE:VIA-news), dream works, and universion of u niversal studios.

　　Paul sprenger, the lead lawyer in the case, said he planned to get the lawsuit certified as a class-action and hoped to ultimately represent some 5,000 writers.

　　"It is not a secret that NBC and others in the TV i ndustry have an open and notorious policy of not allowi ng older writers on their productions," he said.

　　"It is not only an accepted practice at the network s and production studios, it is practically mandatory," he added, "accordingly, the talent agencies won't waste their time on older writers and dump them as soon as th ey get older."

　　Sprenger siad evidence in the case would include a tikoff, the late president of programming at and NBC, t hat he would not hire any writer over the age of 30.