Welcome to Strike 2008 — the sequel. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the negotiating room, the Hollywood unions and their studio paymasters have devised a new dispute to threaten an already precarious industry.
Back at the turn of the year it was the story of the downtrodden writers and their attempts to secure recognition and even money for their labours. Film production schedules were revised, behind the scenes staff were laid off, TV talkshows went dark and the networks turned to reality shows of dubious provenance to fill airtime, before a compromise was reached.
This time it is the actors’ turn to be angry and the dispute has all the features of the best Hollywood blockbusters: there is intrigue, deception, betrayal, an improbably convoluted plot, a cliffhanger ending and a cast list to die for. Among the actors already signed on to the project are Tom Hanks, Kevin Spacey, Sally Field, Alec Baldwin, Jack Nicholson, Ben Stiller, Martin Sheen and Viggo Mortensen.
The latest recruit is George Clooney, who proclaimed his devotion to the actors’ cause with the release of a letter on Thursday.
”I’ve been very lucky in my career, which has put me in the place that I don’t need a union to check on my residuals, or my pension, or protect my 12-hour turnaround,” the actor-director wrote. ”I used to need that, and may again, but right now I don’t. That means it’s my responsibility to look out for actors who are trying to stay afloat from year to year. Anything less is irresponsible of me.”
At the heart of the dispute is the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the bigger of the two unions representing actors, whose contract between its 120 000 members and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers — representing the studios — expires on Monday and could lead to a recommendation to strike.
The screen actors are seeking higher pay for ”middle-tier” actors, artists earning less than $100 000 a year, and a greater cut of profits from sales of DVDs and new-media sales.
The subtext to Clooney’s plea — and the strike — is a split among the actors. While the guild wants to renegotiate the existing contract, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Aftra) – which represents about 80 000 members, many of whom are also members of SAG, reached an agreement with the studios at the end of May, resolving the key issues of royalties from new media and DVD sales.
Since then, SAG has focused much of its fire on Aftra, launching a campaign urging the 44 000 actors who are members of both unions to reject the Aftra agreement, thus strengthening the guild’s hand in its negotiations with the studios.
Hanks, Spacey, Field and Baldwin are members of both unions who support Aftra and urge its members to ratify the agreement by its July 8 deadline. Nicholson, Stiller, Sheen and Mortensen want Aftra-SAG members to reject it.
Clooney is in the middle. One of his proposals is for the creation of a union panel made up of actors who would sit down with the studios once a year to discuss issues of interest. Rather than being ordinary working — or more typically, resting — actors, the panel, suggests Clooney, would include Hanks and Nicholson, ”people that the studio heads don’t often say no to”. Whether Clooney consulted with his famous peers before throwing forward their names is unknown.
But as Clooney notes in his letter, the spectacle of actors feuding with actors is unseemly. ”What we can’t do is pit artist against artist,” he wrote, ”because the one thing you can be sure of is that stories about Jack Nicholson vs Tom Hanks only strengthens the negotiating power of the AMPTP [the studios].”
Most observers believe it unlikely that SAG will be able to muster the 75% approval among its members necessary to authorise a strike on Monday. But if it does, according to the Los Angeles Times, 17 major projects could be delayed or postponed. – guardian.co.uk