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Fat lady hasn't sung for fired opera critic
Posted on November 9, 2006 5:36 PM
Maybe with a name like Robert Thicknesse, the ex-opera critic for The Times of London has married the sort of mezzo-soprano who could fill in for the Raiders at defensive tackle. The way the Raiders are playing, that could be anybody.
Robert was contracted annually to sit through performances where people shout and sing the plot at the audience and each other. When The Times brought in a new arts editor last year, Robert's fat lady sang like a canary (figuratively, I have no idea who he has or hasn't married), and he was fired.
Or was he?...
The Times argued that it was allowed to dismiss Thicknesse on short notice because he was not an employee. However, tribunal chairman Colin Grazin ruled that certain provisions of The Times's contract were a "sham" and granted Thicknesse employee status. The Guardian report cites as an example of a "sham" provision a clause permitting the writer to use, at his own expense, third parties (such as researchers) in preparing his work; the ruling pointed out that The Times would not have tolerated Thicknesse actually using such third parties in writing his reviews.Robert says he was an employee, so he should get the bennies that employees get. The Times says he's a freelancer and only gets what's in the contract. I say they should both be forced to listen to Weezer CD's until they agree to settle the suit.