HERE WE GO AGAIN: ACTORS TO STRIKE??

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - The Screen Actors Guild's negotiating committee voted Wednesday to support a strike authorization vote, a tactic meant to break stalled contract talks with Hollywood studios.

The recommendation, approved 11-2, now goes to the guild's national board for review, and would ultimately need approval of 75 percent of the some 120,000 voting guild members.

"My personal opinion is, yes, we will achieve a strike authorization," said Anne Marie Johnson, a spokeswoman for Membership First, a faction of actors that had controlled SAG's national board until it narrowly lost its majority in elections last month.

"Membership First has always been a strong advocate of having a strike authorization with us while we're negotiating," Johnson said. "That's really a wise way to negotiate."

Contract talks dealing with prime-time TV shows and movies have been at a standstill since the previous contract expired June 30.

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HERE WE GO AGAIN! ACTORS TO STRIKE!

To have one trade union paralyze Hollywood was strange; two doing it in quick succession feels like carelessness. A threatened walkout by actors, which could begin as early as next week, is throwing major film and television studios into chaos.

The contract dispute, this time between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and their white-collar bosses, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), is causing what industry experts have called a "virtual strike".

Production deadlines for dozens of major projects have been scrapped amid growing signs that the SAG, which has 120,000 members, will fail to resolve its dispute before a deadline for industrial action on Tuesday next week.

Most major film shoots are now either being put on hold, or wrapping-up early to avoid disruption.

"No one is doing anything that finishes after 30 June, and nobody's starting anything now," one lawyer representing actors told The Hollywood Reporter. "This is the impact of a strike already."

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UH-OH... NOT AGAIN

Deadline looming for SAG
Guild, studios enter fourth week of talks
By Dave McNary (May 5)

With Hollywood's nerves stretched to the breaking point over a possible strike by thesps, it's make-or-break time for the Screen Actors Guild at the bargaining table.

Negotiators for SAG and the majors face a self-imposed deadline of 5 p.m. PDT today to either make a feature-primetime deal or let the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists have its turn starting Wednesday. The SAG talks have been extended twice and are now in their fourth week.

Both sides met well into Monday night without commenting publicly. But it's understood that the majors have become disinclined to grant a third extension to SAG unless both sides have a deal within sight this afternoon.

And it remains uncertain whether SAG and the AMPTP will start the give-and-take of hard bargaining today. SAG may want to wait until closer to the June 30 contract expiration date in hopes of achieving sweeter terms.

The guild's given only a few signs that it's willing to back off from many of its demands, particularly in new-media provisions, as its leaders have insisted that actors have to receive better terms and salary hikes than those contained in the Directors Guild of America and Writers Guild of America pacts. For its part, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers has insisted that any SAG deal has to follow the pattern set by the directors and writers.

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