2008 Woodie Awards
Possible actors' strike follows writers' path
By: Tannen Gliatta
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: Pulse
Just as your favorite television shows are returning another threat is looming to take them away.
Actors are the next group in Hollywood ready to set down their scripts in favor of picket signs. The actors' labor contract expires on June 30. This should be more than enough time for the actors and studios to reach a deal but it has already gotten off to a rough start.
Variety, a Hollywood trade newspaper, explains actors are either members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents soap opera actors and a handful of prime time shows, or the Screen Actors Guild, which represents essentially everyone else. On May 29 the two unions decided they would not go into contract negotiations together. According to the newspaper this will be the first time in 30 years that the unions have not showed a united front when going into negotiations, all previous talks resulted in a compromise between the unions and studios.
Currently the Screen Actors Guild is set to begin talks on April 15 while the TV guild has yet to set a date Variety reported.
The actors are asking for nearly the same things that sent the writers into a 100 day strike. Compensation for changing technology including increased residuals for Internet downloads and DVD sales are at the center of the conflict according to Entertainment Weekly magazine.
While the writers' strike hurt Hollywood an actors' strike has the possibility of destroying it. The writers' strike wounded television the most because of the more immediate ramifications while movies could continue to be filmed as long as their scripts were finished. Even television stands to rebound from the writers' strike as most shows are gearing up for a few new episodes this season. But if the actors go on strike television sets as well as film sets will go dark instantly according to USA Today.
Audiences will still have their summer blockbusters at the local movie theater and even the onslaught of horror films in the fall but after that the theaters could get a bit deserted. And television could face the bleak fall season everyone thought they avoided when the writers' strike concluded in February reports USA Today.
Actors are the next group in Hollywood ready to set down their scripts in favor of picket signs. The actors' labor contract expires on June 30. This should be more than enough time for the actors and studios to reach a deal but it has already gotten off to a rough start.
Variety, a Hollywood trade newspaper, explains actors are either members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents soap opera actors and a handful of prime time shows, or the Screen Actors Guild, which represents essentially everyone else. On May 29 the two unions decided they would not go into contract negotiations together. According to the newspaper this will be the first time in 30 years that the unions have not showed a united front when going into negotiations, all previous talks resulted in a compromise between the unions and studios.
Currently the Screen Actors Guild is set to begin talks on April 15 while the TV guild has yet to set a date Variety reported.
The actors are asking for nearly the same things that sent the writers into a 100 day strike. Compensation for changing technology including increased residuals for Internet downloads and DVD sales are at the center of the conflict according to Entertainment Weekly magazine.
While the writers' strike hurt Hollywood an actors' strike has the possibility of destroying it. The writers' strike wounded television the most because of the more immediate ramifications while movies could continue to be filmed as long as their scripts were finished. Even television stands to rebound from the writers' strike as most shows are gearing up for a few new episodes this season. But if the actors go on strike television sets as well as film sets will go dark instantly according to USA Today.
Audiences will still have their summer blockbusters at the local movie theater and even the onslaught of horror films in the fall but after that the theaters could get a bit deserted. And television could face the bleak fall season everyone thought they avoided when the writers' strike concluded in February reports USA Today.
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