History Main / CastingCouch

[[quoteright:300:[[Webcomic/{{Toonhole}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/casting_couch_1.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[http://toonhole.com/comic/do-anything/ Be careful what you sign up for.]]]]

* Kotoko Utsugi's mother from ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' was a StageMom who prostituted herself, her ''10-year-old daughter'', or even both of them at the same time to get her daughter roles. It's no surprise that [[SelfMadeOrphan Kotoko ended up killing]] [[AbusiveParents her and her equally horribly father]].

** Subverted when Liz, figuring this is just the way things work in show business, grits her teeth and sleeps with an executive in order to spare the show from budget cuts, which then happen anyway. She angrily confronts him ("You got your quid, where's my quo?") and he's appalled to learn it wasn't real, asking what kind of person would engage in such a transaction and tearfully apologizing to his dead wife for the disrespect to her memory. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Liz ends up getting suspended for sexual harassment and forced to go through a sensitivity training program.]]

* Jill Castle in the Creator/SidneySheldon novel ''A Stranger In The Mirror'' is determined to succeed in Hollywood ''without'' doing this, but ultimately has to resort to it. Even crueler, despite this, she never becomes a big star. Honey Taft in the novel ''Nothing Lasts Forever'' does this to get through college and medical school and to stay in residency even as her superiors realize she's nowhere near as qualified for her position as her grades would indicate (she's not stupid, she just has no affinity for medicine and attended school under orders from her father).

* In ''Film/{{Chicago}}'', Roxie is {{implied| trope}} to have slept with Fred Caseley because he was lying about having connections in the show biz and finding her chances. When she found out the truth, [[PlotTriggeringDeath she shot him]]. This was a new motive for his murder; in the stage show, he was just a furniture salesman who was going to end their affair.

* In ''Literature/{{Baccano}} 1930 - The Rolling Bootlegs'', Detective Edward Noah accuses Firo of this when he learns the boy is getting promoted to an executive position in [[TheMafia the camorra]].

* There's a tearjerker example in ''Literature/TheGodfather'' when the mother of a twelve-year-old actress hands her daughter over to producer Jack Woltz (a thinly disguised Jack Warner). Insiders say it's based on a true story.
** The movie tones this down, except in deleted scenes, but Woltz complains about another actress. He mentions her talent, how much money he spent on her, and how he was going to make her a big star, but he seems angrier that he won't have another chance to sleep with her, because Johnny Fontane, an actor who is the godson of Vito Corleone, got with her first. This is why Woltz isn't going to give Fontane a role that will revive Fontane's career. The response the Corleones do to force his hand is to decapitate his prize stud Khartoum and place the severed head in Woltz's bed.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DariaIsItCollegeYet'' what splits Jane and her lesbian LoveInterest is that she slept with a man to enter a presitigious art school.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DariaIsItCollegeYet'' what splits Jane and her lesbian LoveInteret is that she slept with a man to enter a presitigious art school.

* A by-proxy example in ''Film/ForrestGump'' occurs when Forrest's mother sleeps with the school principal to ensure that Gump, despite being below the IQ minimum for school admission, gets admitted to the school.

* In the backstory to ''Creature Court,'' the stagemaster of the Mermaid theatre troupe expects to sleep with with any actress looking to take or keep a role, especially any girl who wants to move out of the lambs' chorus - which in this case means actresses of ''twelve or thirteen''. His attempt to do this to [[spoiler:a young Livilla]] triggered her coming into her powers as a courtesa. It's mentioned that the stellar (lead performer) of the troupe is also sleeping with him regularly to keep her role.

* In ''Film/{{Chicago}}'', Roxie is {{implied| trope}} to have slept with Fred Caseley because he was lying about having connections in the show biz and finding her chances. when she found out the truth, [[PlotTriggeringDeath she shot him]]. This was a new motive for his murder; in the stage show, he was just a furniture salesman who was going to end their affair.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* ''Manga/OshiNoKo'' treats actresses and producers doing so as an open secret in the industry. The one time this trope becomes truly relevant is when Kana Arima, already feeling insecure about her not pursuing her chosen field of acting after becoming an idol and her increasing irrelevance in B-Komachi once Ruby begins turning heads, decidea to go to a night club well known for aspiring starlets hoping to sleep with higher ups for roles. She does end up in a compromising situation with a producer, and even prepares herself to have sex with him, but shs backs out at the last second because she's still in love with Ruby's brother Aquamarine. In a surprising variation on the trope, the producer she almost sleeps with is an otherwise friendly guy, immediately backs down when Kana is visibly distressed, and genuinely thinks she has promise as an actress. He even gives her some acting roles after the fact.

* There is joke about a girl who complains in the morning "Why didn't you tell me you're a ''cartoon'' producer"

* Mia Jones in ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' wanted to be a model and she thought it would help to have sex with the star of the product. It turns out that he doesn't choose the model at all and that she was already a shoe-in for the spot, so she completely regretted what she did.

** Subverted when a down on her luck [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Samus]] applies for a job at Angie's bar and sees a couch in her office, she immediately thinks this is where the interview will go. (And based on her reaction, it's strongly implied this was how she got the ''Metroid'' job in the first place.) Angie is rightly shocked when she comes into Samus stripped down to her Zero Suit. (In case you're wondering, she tells Samus she can't hire her because Nintendo might sue, then slips a note saying to apply under a fake name so Angie can claim ignorance.)

* Referenced in the stage version of ''Film/TheProducers'' with Max (who sleeps with lots of little old ladies who fund his shows) telling Leo that "he wants to see someone on that couch under the age of 85" to justify hiring a sexy Swedish secretary who speaks little English. Also, in Leo's song "I Wanna Be a Producer":
-->''He's gonna be a producer with a great big casting couch!''

* "Fucked My Way Up to the Top" by Music/LanaDelRey