Strike 2? Hollywood braces for actor walkout

SAG is pushing for more money on DVD residuals, a raise producers have refused to give other Hollywood unions. Leaders of SAG also say the AFTRA contract shortchanges actors on potential revenue from Internet programming.

“When unions compete with different contract terms, actors lose. It starts a race to the bottom that SAG doesn’t want to win,” SAG chief negotiator Doug Allen said in a June 23 message asking actors who belong to both unions to vote against AFTRA’s deal.

Along with Cromwell, actors such as Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and Morgan Fairchild are among hundreds who have signed an agreement encouraging AFTRA members to approve the deal.

SAG, which accounts for about 90 percent of TV production and all of the film industry, insists it can strike a better bargain. But if the AFTRA deal goes through by a wide margin, it could undermine SAG’s leaders, who might not be able to drum up the votes should they decide to ask members to authorize a strike.

“The worst thing you can do is to try to get it and fail,” AFTRA President Roberta Reardon said. “It’s hard to imagine a performer voting yes for one contract then voting to put himself out on the street for the other one.”

‘It’s not worth it’
Alexandra Leighton, a 28-year-old actress who appears in two episodes of the new CBS drama “Swingtown,” said she is voting for the AFTRA deal and would oppose a SAG strike.

Leighton backs SAG’s demand for tougher consent rules over use of an actor’s image in online clips, but she said it was not worth losing her job — her first acting gig outside of commercials.

“Too many people would be put out of work,” Leighton said. “It’s just not worth it. The economy is already iffy, and it would just crush the local economy.”

It also could ruin some TV series. Audiences did without new episodes on many shows for months while writers were on strike. If actors walk and new episodes vanish again, fans could lose interest for good.

When writers returned in February, the feeling in Hollywood was that cooler heads among actors and producers would avert another strike. Optimism gradually eroded as the two actors unions began beating up on each other.

While SAG has struck deals to allow work to continue with many independent producers, studio production that accounts for most of Hollywood employment has been hurled into limbo.

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