BOB D'AMICO/ABCFamily meeting is back on!
This morning, the cast members of Modern Family set aside their high-stakes money fight and had their first official table read for the fourth season. (Awkward!)
Despite their lawsuit (which now includes Ed O'Neill as a plaintiff) still being on, the spillage of bad blood has temporarily been stanched, with a source close to the show telling us that reps for the six stars—Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Sofia Vergara and O'Neill—are set to meet with the producers at 20th Century to resume contract negotiations, while show creator Steve Levitan is also attempting to play peacemaker.
According to our insider, Levitan emailed a note to the cast asking them to try to work things at amicably. Per The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported that contract talks had resumed, the letter described the cast and producers as "a family."
Earlier this week, the first table read was abruptly canceled after the six stars made it known they would boycott until the contract issue was addressed. They followed up their threat by filing a suit. In the legal action, Bown, Burrell, Ferguson, Stonestreet and Vergara alleged that their current deals with 20th Century for Modern Family violate California's Seven-Year Rule, which prohibits personal services contracts for more than seven years.
The five actors are currently taking home $60,000 per episode. O'Neill, who was a big star before joining the show, gets $100,000 per episode. Before becoming party to the lawsuit, he joined his TV brood in asking for a pay raise; according to a show source, all six are seeking hikes "somewhere in the neighborhood" of $200,000 an episode.