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Brooke Shields made a surreptitious visit to South Park Popular Colorado restaurant for creatives to support unionized workers.
The Actors’ Equity president made a trip earlier this year to Casa Bonita, a prominent Mexican restaurant owned by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and delivered a letter demanding better pay for the restaurant’s live performers, the union confirmed to Hollywood Reporter. Shields booked her under a fake name so Parker and Stone wouldn’t know she was coming.
“It was a bit of an ambush,” Shields told CNN. “You try to do things respectfully, and then you don’t get as much respect…so you have to resort to other tactics.”
Shields added that restaurant management did not immediately recognize her because they suspected “the place was too big.” But then, “word got out because, you know, I didn’t have a hat or a mustache or anything.”
Casa Bonita employs 80 cast members who unionized under Actors’ Equity in 2024. Performers include cliff divers, puppeteers, and magicians who have been in negotiations with management for more than a year and have reportedly attended 14 bargaining sessions with management. The cast is demanding salary increases so they can earn the same as caterers (performers are paid $21 to $26 an hour).
The group also complained about working conditions. One actor, dressed as Moko the gorilla, told CNN: “I’ve been sexually assaulted more than 20 times since I’ve worked there,” while one divers claims the dive team suffered injuries such as hypothermia and chlorine toxicity.
Parker and Stone had no immediate comment. Restaurant management issued a statement to CNN saying: “We value all of our team members and their well-being. As a policy, we do not comment on ongoing labor negotiations.”
Parker and Stone saved the local establishment from bankruptcy in 2021, and said they spent nearly $50 million renovating and improving the restaurant. The duo also struck a massive five-year streaming deal with Paramount last year worth $1.5 billion, telling… Jimmy Kimmel Live! In May, “We would be the richest comedians if it weren’t for Casa Bonita… We think we might get our money back sometime like 2040/2045.”
The duo’s struggle to revive the restaurant was chronicled in a 2024 Paramount+ documentary, ¡Casa bonita mi amor!
