You know, the cool thing about art house films is that the people involved always seem so good-natured and giving, united by their common goal to bring a brilliant creative vision to the big screen. They say it’s not about the street cred or the awards, and it’s certainly not about the money — big name actors often take a pay cut just so they can be a part of these special indie projects that they believe in so deeply. But if that art house film by some strange turn of events happens to become a big hit, then watch out! All bets are off. Suddenly everyone wants to get paid, and they want to get paid YESTERDAY.

A while back there was a story about Randy Quaid suing the producers of Brokeback Mountain because he felt he was cheated out of money. Now The New York Times has the interesting story about Paul Haggis’ Oscar-winning movie Crash, which has grossed $180 million worldwide. You’d think everyone involved would be pretty rich by now, but apparently Haggis himself has made less than $300,000, while the 8 main actors have only received checks for $19,000 thus far. Needless to say, Haggis and the cast are not very happy, and are wondering what’s taking Lion’s Gate, the film’s domestic distributor, so long to dole out the goods. Bob Yari, the producer and financier in charge of disbursing payments, said in a recent interview: “They have been correctly paid. They will be paid more. This is the process. We’ve done everything aboveboard.” On the other hand, Yari says that Lion’s Gate still owes him personally another $10 million, and he recently filed a lawsuit of his own against the movie’s co-producers for breach of contract. What a mess.

Both Haggis and the movie’s co-writer Bobby Moresco were also apparently in “dire financial straits” before they made the movie (whatever that means in Hollywood terms). Still, it’s pretty damn hard to actually feel sorry for anyone involved in these kinds of disputes. Clearly the intersection between art and business will always be one plagued with jealousy and resentment, but to the rest of us common folks it’s another case of “Quit your whining, pretty boys!”