Two men are suing Fox Searchlight, saying the company violated minimum wage and overtime laws when they employed the two as interns on the Academy Award-winning film "Black Swan." In these uncertain economic times, many film studios and other employers have been hiring more unpaid interns. For the company that hires interns, the benefit is a free worker, and for the intern the benefit is a learning experience, and possibly a paid job offer in the future. The federal labor department has a set list of rules that unpaid internships must follow: the position should benefit the intern, it should not displace other employees, and it should be educational. Did Fox Searchlight violate these rules?

It's the end of summer, and that means that businesses around the country are being emptied of their interns. Early this summer, they arrived with their youth and their ambition. As the air turns crisp, they go home, leaving behind neatly stacked piles of folders, well organized databases, and, perhaps, a good impression.  

But a small group of those interns left something else behind: a wad of cash. Today, a growing number of young people – or their parents – are paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of working an unpaid internship.

In recent articles that have been getting a lot of buzz, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal took on the topic of unpaid internships...and suggested that many unpaid internships may, in fact, be illegal.

We wanted to find out more. And so we're talking with our work contributor Beth Kobliner about what kinds of internships are legal, which aren't, and whether they're even worth doing.

• Winter Weather: Bo Herndon, vegetable grower from Toombs County, Georgia, and president of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association,  talks about the potentially devastating impact of this week's freeze on his crop of onions, cabbages, and sweet corn. 
• Listener Takeout: Many listeners called and wrote after yesterday's story on internships; our work contributor, Beth Kobliner, calls in to answer some of your questions and lists off the best sites to go to for adult internships. They include: weddles.com, vault.com, careerbuilder.com, craigslist.org, wowowow.com

You may think that internships are for kids, but they can be the perfect way to relaunch a career or reinvent one if you’re in your 30s, 40s, or older. In this week's work segment, we get the scoop on adult internships from our work contributor, Beth Kobliner. We also chat with Kelly Barbieri, a 41-year-old who went from laid-off print journalist to managing editor of relocation.com, thanks to an internship she did this past fall with YourTango.com.

Beth recommends the following sites to those who are seeking adult internships:

weddles.com
vault.com
careerbuilder.com
craigslist.org
wowowow.com