A CASE currently brewing in Hollywood could have implications far beyond the film industry. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that a pair of interns, who had previously taken issue with their treatment working on Black Swan, are set to expand their legal action to address all internships within 20th Century Fox.

The rise of the intern has transformed the way many businesses function and has made it more difficult for less well-off candidates to secure a place on the lower rungs of the employment ladder. Companies across the US and, increasingly, Europe, have taken to appointing workers at no wage to carry out less glamorous tasks. The law currently states that interns must receive some educational benefit from their labours and must not be asked to do work that would otherwise be carried out by employees.

Alex Footman, one of the Black Swan Two (as we’ve just decided to call them), said that he spent his time making coffee, taking lunch orders and cleaning the office.

“The only thing I learned on this internship was to be more picky in choosing employment opportunities,” he said. “Black Swan had more than $300 million in revenues. If they paid us, it wouldn’t make a big difference to them, but it would make a huge difference to us.”

Fox is having none of it. “These are completely meritless claims aimed solely at getting press coverage for the litigants and their attorneys,” a spokesman commented.