SAGTo strike or not to strike? That is the question dogging Hollywood.
But while filmmakers, TV producers, casts and crews are holding their collective breaths with the Screen Actors Guild contract due to expire at midnight, union president Alan Rosenberg says there is no immediate work stoppage in the, um, works.
"We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of the Screen Actors Guild," he says in a statement. "Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction."
Right now, SAG has a seemingly bigger headache to deal with first—the very real threat of all-out civil war with its sister union, the American Federal of Television & Radio Artists. AFTRA reached a separate agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers weeks ago, triggering infighting among the thespian set.
In one corner, stars like Viggo Mortensen, Laura Dern, Jack Nicholson and Holly Hunter have urged AFTRA to vote down the pact, claiming it undercuts much of the Screen Actors Guild's agenda, which focuses on new media pay scales, DVD residuals and a bigger say over product placement.
In the other corner: Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin, all of whom back the AFTRA deal, claiming it will create new opportunities for actors.
George Clooney has attempted to play peacemaker, calling for Hanks and Nicholson to meet together to help hash out a truce.
SAG is ponying up $150,000 worth of advertisements, robo-calls and email blasts to persuade AFTRA folks to just say no to the contract.
AFTRA's national executive director, Kim Roberts Hedgpeth, labels such tactics "appalling" and "divisive."
"Whether the attempts by a sister union to interfere in the ratification of your contract are motivated by politics, fear, naïveté, inexperience, or the intention to do harm to your union, there is an undeniable reality: It is a disgrace," she says in a message posted on the union's website.
Unlike the Screen Actors Guild, which covers actors in film and television, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists represents thesps in live events (a remnant of its history repping radio acts) and video, which includes some cable and reality shows. However, with the advent of series shot in digital video, the two unions have been squabbling over jurisdictional rights.
But with both SAG and AFTRA's contracts set to end at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the question remains: Will the industry once again see another walkout like the crippling three-month Writers Guild of America strike that ended in February?
As the unions battle it out over whose terms will ultimately prevail, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is trying to head any potential work stoppage off at the pass, taking out ads in Monday's trades calling a strike "harmful and unnecessary."
AMPTP says a work stoppage would result in $2.3 billion in lost wages and more than 37,000 people out of work.
"The industry is shutting down because SAG's Hollywood leadership insisted on 11th-hour negotiations and dragging these talks into July so they can continue attacking AFTRA," the rep said in a statement.
SAG says it will continue negotiating with producers for "as many hours as it takes" to make sure its concerns left out of the AFTRA deal are satisfied.