Battered Hollywood Braces for New Strike
Lauren A.E. Schuker - Associated Press
Jun 16, 2008
Still reeling from a long strike by screenwriters this past winter, Hollywood is bracing for the possibility that the entertainment industry will grind to a halt again - this time because of a dispute with actors.
The studios' contract with the Screen Actors Guild expires June 30, and talks are getting contentious. Already, film and television producers are holding back on new projects, fearing the talks will fail, even as they rush to complete existing projects before the end of the month.
The two sides have made little progress on key issues including compensation for actors when their work is used on DVD or new media such as the Internet. The actors guild says it's prepared to negotiate even after the contract expires. However, the studios may refuse to keep talking. So long as there is no contract, the de facto stoppage in new productions is likely to continue.
"Honestly, I think a lot of actors are kind of terrified," said Sandra Dee Ferguson, a 40-year-old television actress. "Last year was really difficult for a lot of people and I'm sensing overwhelming fear in the community."
Ms. Ferguson had recently bought a home with her husband when the writers struck. A month away from foreclosure, she approached the Actors Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps entertainers, and it paid her mortgage for a month.
The financial pressure on both sides means there's still a chance they'll reach a deal by June 30. Earlier this year, after the writers' strike ended, a group of influential actors, including Tom Hanks, took out advertisements in Hollywood trade papers imploring the Screen Actors Guild's leadership to quickly negotiate a new deal.
Another wild card is that a smaller actors' union is voting on its already-agreed contract with the industry. If that contract is approved, the Screen Actors Guild may be more willing to make concessions.
For the moment, though, the rhetoric on both sides is dismissive.
"We're not the ones slowing this thing down - they are," said Doug Allen, SAG's national executive director, referring to the studios. "They need to engage in some meaningful bargaining before we can move forward."
On Thursday night, the studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said they were "frustrated and discouraged" by SAG's suggestion that talks could extend past the contract's expiration date.
The screen actors have not taken a strike authorization vote, which takes about three weeks to execute before any walkout could occur. It isn't clear whether the guild's 120,000 members would support a strike. People close to the matter say the studios have discussed the possibility of a lockout, though that is a step they are reluctant to take.
A strike or production stoppage could once again leave viewers without some popular shows. Several television series, such as "Dirty Sexy Money" from Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Studios and the teen soap "Gossip Girl" from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Television are either in production or will be starting up soon. If actors walk out, those productions would be immediately stalled in the midst of shooting.
On the film side, Donna Langley, president of production at General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios, said the studio "planned strategically" for films in production - including "Fast and Furious" with Vin Diesel - to finish before June 30. The studio delayed Judd Apatow's "Funny People" so that it will start shooting in the fall, by which point it hopes the actors' negotiations will have been resolved. "If there is a strike that lasts until September, we'll change our plans," said Ms. Langley.
In Hollywood, the hangover from the writers' strike - which shut down almost all film and TV production for about 100 days - is still intense. The strike took a toll on the California economy, according to a report issued this month by the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica, Calif., economic think tank. The report estimated the state would lose about $2.1 billion in output as well as 37,000 jobs by the end of the year.
"Even if the actors strike doesn't happen, there is already an economic impact going on which is currently affecting production schedules," says an author of the study, Milken Institute economist Kevin Klowden. "Even a smaller strike would slow down the recovery."
The screen actors are seeking higher compensation for "middle-class actors" - mostly those making enough to qualify for health insurance but less than $100,000 a year - and adjustments to the framework for new-media compensation established in earlier contracts. The writers' contract doesn't cover certain new-media productions under a budget threshold, and the screen actors want all new-media productions to be covered.
The industry says it isn't willing to go further than its earlier deals with other unions, including the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild of America, and another actors' union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The federation represents 70,000 performers, 44,000 of whom are also in the Screen Actors Guild.
The federation's deal has turned into a prominent sideshow. The Screen Actors Guild says its sister union got a bad deal, and it is urging federation members to reject it. They will vote on it soon, with results expected July 8.
The federation's president, Roberta Reardon, said in an interview she expects her members to approve the deal. "I have a tremendous amount of support from our members who think that SAG is painting themselves into a terrible corner," Ms. Reardon said.
The stalled negotiations with the screen actors are already affecting production plans. A potential strike played into the planning of "Angels & Demons," Sony Pictures Entertainment's big-budget sequel to 2006's "The Da Vinci Code." Studio executives and director Ron Howard sought to hedge any damage from an actors' walkout by filming all of the location-based shots in Europe by the end of June. The production will then return to Los Angeles soundstages, so that if there is a strike, expensive and complicated location shoots won't be affected, according to a person familiar with the studio's thinking.
As of last week, the Actors Fund had provided over $1.2 million to nearly 800 people since the beginning of the writers' strike. Typically the fund budgets $200,000 a year in Los Angeles for such emergency outlays. Calls to the organization have doubled as people report trouble finding work, said fund official Keith McNutt.
Olivia Burnette, an actress who has guest-starred on shows including "CSI: NY," lost her SAG health insurance as well as her agent during the writers' strike. She has since begun going to auditions again and has found new representation, but fears a new strike would be "potentially devastating."
"This business is about getting the role, and just as you start going, to get completely thrown out of work again would be really, really bad," Ms. Burnette says.
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Copyright 2008 by Associated Press
