Brooke Shields paid a stealthy visit to the South Park creators’ iconic Colorado theme restaurant to support unionized workers.
The Actors’ Equity president took a trip earlier this year to Casa Bonita, a landmark Mexican restaurant owned by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and delivered a letter asking for better wages for the restaurant’s live performers, the union confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. Shields made her booking under a fake name so Parker and Stone wouldn’t know she was coming.
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“It was slightly an ambush,” Shields told celebrity.land. “You try doing things respectfully, and then you’re not met with equal respect … so you have to resort to other tactics.”
Shields added she wasn’t immediately recognized by the restaurant’s management because, she suspected, “the place is so big.” But then, “word got out because, you know, I didn’t have a hat on and mustache or anything.”
Casa Bonita employs 80 castmembers who unionized under Actors’ Equity in 2024. The performers include cliff divers, puppeteers and magicians who have been in negotiations with management for more than a year, reportedly attending 14 bargaining sessions with management. The cast is demanding salary increases so they make as much as food servers (the performers are paid $21-$26 an hour).
The group has also complained about working conditions. One actor who dresses up as Moko the gorilla told celebrity.land, “I’ve been grabbed sexually 20-plus times since working there,” while a cliff diver claims the dive team have suffered injuries such as hypothermia and chlorine toxicity.
Parker and Stone had no immediate comment. The restaurant’s management released a statement to celebrity.land 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 rescued the local institution from bankruptcy in 2021, and have said they have spent roughly $50 million renovating and improving the restaurant. The duo also struck a blockbuster five-year streaming deal with Paramount last year worth $1.5 billion, and told Jimmy Kimmel Live! in May, “We would be the richest comedians if it wasn’t for Casa Bonita … We think we might make our money back sometime like 2040/2045.”
The duo’s struggles to revive the restaurant were chronicled in a 2024 Paramount+ documentary, ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!
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