AUSTIN, Texas — First the writers strike shut down Hollywood. Now the actors are threatening to do the same. For the sake of our viewing pleasure, let’s hope actors and producers can come to terms before the June 30 contract deadline. Let’s all just stipulate that actors, writers and other artists should share in profits from digital distribution and DVD sales.
And to speed up the process, can’t the actors just accept similar “new media” profits negotiated by the directors and writers and avoid a major work stoppage altogether? Just when you think it’s safe to look forward to a fall TV season that might actually start on time and gallop full- force into the following spring, the Screen Actors Guild and its sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, are rattling their swords at producers — and each other.
On the eve of joint negotiations, which have been the practice for 27 years, SAG and AFTRA split up March 29 and decided to wrestle separately with studios and networks. This is not a good sign.
AFTRA, representing more than 70,000 TV actors, announcers, reality hosts and some news folks, wants to make a deal quickly with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. The group feels it has more at stake if TV production stops than film actors have if movie production stops.
SAG, meanwhile, represents more than 120,000 film and TV performers — including about 44,000 AFTRA members who hold overlapping membership.
The two unions pack less punch negotiating separately, and if AFTRA signs an early deal with producers that SAG feels does not go far enough, a strike on June 30 becomes more likely. And given the overlap in membership and the inherent empathy between the two (regardless of the separate negotiations), a strike by either guild would force everyone to hit the picket lines.
This break between SAG and AFTRA smells dangerous. If progress isn’t made, we’re facing the prospect of new scripts with no actors to perform them. The result could be even more reality shows during the summer and the demise of comedies and dramas as we know them in the fall.
The public will have little sympathy or patience for multimillion-dollar actors marching on a picket line. Sure, there are workaday actors who don’t make a fortune. In fact, many are out of work and struggling. But the ones we’ll see on the news will be the stars of “Desperate Housewives” and “CSI” — the ones who make more money per episode than most of us will make in a decade.
A few weeks ago, trade papers and industry experts felt confident that Hollywood was in no mood for another labor strike.
But with bad feelings brewing between the two actors unions, the skies are darkening. Granted, it’s a long time between April and the end of June. Anything can happen. But if actors go on strike, even for a few weeks in July, the TV season will take a big hit.
