The Latest From the Strike Front

Perhaps you were hoping that because I hadn’t said anything recently about a possible Actor’s Strike that there was no chance of it happening.

Sadly, that’s not the case. However, events today may make it much harder for SAG to pull one off…

According to TVGuide.com, SAG plans to send out ballots January 2nd to its 100,000 members asking for a strike authorization. The votes would be tabulated by January 23rd.

But the New York Division Board of Directors of SAG has asked the guild to halt the vote for an emergency meeting of the national board to appoint new negotiators.

The New York Board has 14 of the 71 representatives on the national board.

Alan Rosenberg, SAG’s president, has agreed to the national meeting, but not to appoint negotiators. Instead he wants to address “the ramifications of this extraordinarily destructive and subversive action.” Apparently, the NY Board supported a strike in October.

But I think we can all agree things were different in October, right? The economy wasn’t in such a jam and the full impact of the Writers’ Strike on television hadn’t been realized yet. So, I think it’s not surprising that people are concerned about another strike.

Seizing on that concern, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers bought an ad in “Variety” and “The Hollywood Reporter” appealing directly to actors to vote no on the strike authorization because the new deal will benefit them significantly.

SAG, of course, says that the ad is full of lies.

Can’t we all just get along?

I understand wanting to get every dime you deserve. But in these troubled times, shouldn’t Rosenberg and his pals on the SAG board be giving this a little more thought? Hopefully, the SAG members are...

Stay Tuned…