A group of high-profile Screen Actors Guild members have signed a letter urging SAG board members, officers and staff to avoid a strike authorization and instead band with other unions at a later date for new contracts with producers, Deadline Hollywood Daily reports. The letter, signed by actors including Jason Alexander, Alec Baldwin, Felicity Huffman and Debra Messing, says “SAG members should not vote to authorize a strike at this time” and that they “do not believe in all good conscience that now is the time to be putting people out of work,” according to the site.
—Sergio Ibarra
SAG Actors Call for No Strike Authorization
Dec 15, 2008 • Post A Comment
AMEN!
A strike, at this point in time, would be a very bad idea. The most militant SAG board members are only concerned about themselves, no one else. Certainly no one “Below the Line”. What Mr. Rosenberg needs to concern himself with is how to keep his actors employed in an indutry that is continueing to hemorage money. Television, as we know it, is dieing. Theater Box office is down (Bad Movies? Economy? Or both?) and now, console/computer gaming is taking over as the preferred option for entertainment.
As both a SAG and AFTRA member, as both an actor and a producer and as both an owner and a performer… as the song says; “A Whole New World…” and that’s what’s shaping before our eyes everyday. When we “paid in full” for one of our editing systems, that was it until we wanted to upgrade or change the system. But no further cost. Now, imagine if the manufacturer was able to tag every project we made and demanded a portion of our profits on products produced from his editing system? (“Ya know you couldn’t edit creative like that if we didn’t make that thing!”).Would you buy from that vender ever again? Think not! But now as a performer, I understand the history of payment. That in times past, when a performer went on stage, much, if not all of his/her compensation for the gig was based on the number of performances, his/her ability and draw as a star. The more he/she worked, the more popular, the more they got paid. In turn, the show ran longer, the star got bigger, they drew a larger house(audience) which meant more money to the producer and so on and so on. So here we are thousands of years later still debating the chicken and the egg. Mean while Clint Eastwood’s new film is almost CG everything including extras. Hello 21st century! What I would like to see is balanced compensation for everyone involved, but to do that means a fresh start to the human race. That’s why I’m a Christian… I get a fresh start. But that’s another story. So how do you tell the 80% who do very little that they really don’t deserve much of what the 20% did for them. It’s like… try and tell one of the big four that you paid $29.95 for their new hit DVD and that gives you the right to make as many copies as you want for Christmas gifts. Don’t think so! Do you see how this is never ending. We just have to come to some common ground. Remember what happened to Marie Antoinette who thought she had the rights to the good life, while a bunch of performers off stage had a different script. So let’s share the cake and we’ll server it up with a smile.